When We Look Away
What Fallout tells us about today’s press and the war in Gaza Published 7/26/2025 on Substack One of the compelling reasons to read books is that they often take you to places you weren’t expected to be transported to. Sometimes there is a hint you may not totally see; sometimes it is a complete surprise. That was the case reading Fallout by Lesley M. M. Blume. To read this book in 2025, it seems incomprehensible that media behaved in the manner that it did in 1946. And the first thought that comes to mind is could the New Yorker pull this off in 2025? Is the standard set by John Hersey, Harold Ross, and William Shaw, too high? More than the subject matter (I had already read Hirsohima ) was how Blume details the meticulous manner in the way the story was vetted and edited. The way they kept the story secret to the entire staff-to the point of creating a “dummy edition” to fool the staff. This was a 30,000 word story, that was the sole story for that week’s edition. No cartoons, no “...