Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington

New York Times Bestseller

Seasoned CBS reporter and author of The Smear, Sharyl Attkisson reveals how she has been electronically surveilled while digging deep into the Obama Administration and its scandals, and offers an incisive critique of her industry and the shrinking role of investigative journalism in today’s media.

Americans are at the mercy of powerful figures in business and government who are virtually unaccountable. The Obama Administration in particular has broken new ground in its monitoring of journalists, intimidation and harassment of opposition groups, and surveillance of private citizens.

Sharyl Attkisson has been a journalist for more than thirty years. During that time she has exposed scandals and covered controversies under both Republican and Democratic administrations. She has also seen the opponents of transparency go to ever greater lengths to discourage and obstruct legitimate reporting.

Attkisson herself has been subjected to “opposition research” efforts and spin campaigns. These tactics increased their intensity as she relentlessly pursued stories that the Obama Administration dismissed. Stonewalled is the story of how her news reports were met with a barrage of PR warfare tactics, including online criticism, as well as emails and phone calls up the network chain of command in an effort to intimidate and discourage the next story. In Stonewalled, Attkisson recounts her personal tale, setting it against the larger story of the decline of investigative journalism and unbiased truth telling in America today.

“Stonewalled is a harrowing real-life tale that should be required reading for anyone who has asked the Obama White House a question and foolishly expected a straight answer. Sharyl Attkisson’s meticulous reconstruction of her award-winning investigative stories shows how difficult the federal government has made it to commit a random act of journalism, how the groupthink of network news bureaus can be every bit as soul-crushing as university politics, and how buying digital ink by the barrel is no longer an insurance policy against the kind of government surveillance that used to be unthinkable.” - David Martosko, U.S. Political Editor, The Daily Mail (UK)

“Attkisson offers a harrowing and gripping account of journalism as practiced these days in Washington. She skillfully unveils how she discovered the secret scheme to spy on her. The larger and more disturbing takeaway is how the mainstream are falling down on the job.” - Jeff Gerth, Pulitzer Prize winning former investigative reporter for the New York Times

“I don’t know any journalist like Sharyl Attkisson. She has no fear and she doesn’t stop until she gets all of the facts, like an old-fashioned gumshoe detective. That’s why I stop and listen to her when I see her on TV and that is why I read her book. Stonewalled is a perfect blend of Attkisson’s captivating storytelling abilities and her relentless appetite for the truth. No fluff, no agenda...just the facts.” - Greta Van Susteren, On the Record

“It really doesn’t matter if you are left, right or center, the facts compiled in this timely and unforgettable book speak for themselves. Stonewalled paints a chilling portrait of our times. The erosion of First Amendment rights in our country is epidemic, as Sharyl Attkisson describes in chilling personal detail. If you are not scared now, you will be when you finish this astonishing work of nonfiction.” - David Kirby, former New York Times writer, bestselling author of Evidence of Harm and winner of 2005 Investigative Reporters and Editors award for best book.

“Forty years ago Woodward and Bernstein exposed the rampant dishonesty inside the White House. Four decades later, one of America’s few remaining premier investigative journalists has penned an explosive book detailing just how far short her profession has fallen in keeping to those ideals. Sharyl Attkisson’s Stonewalled examines the power exerted by the corporations that control the media, the ruthless tactics used by the Obama administration and its allies to manipulate and control the news narrative, and the complacency of many of her colleagues in challenging the entrenched special interests. Stonewalled is not only a riveting read, it’s a gutsy and important book that reminds us of what journalism should be. ” - Tom Bevan, Co-Founder and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics

A deep, nuanced and indignant indictment of the players who have made investigative journalism harder to conduct, even if those actors are other journalists. - Kirkus Reviews