NONFICTION - Oct. 20, 1991

LAST STAND: Logging, Journalism, and the Case for Humility by Richard Manning (Gibbs Smith: $19.95; 179 pp.). Richard Manning became a journalist because he saw it as a profession that tries to “foment democracy”--because it enabled him “to do work that mattered.” Although the book at first seems to be a critical report on the timber industry in Montana, where Manning covered environmental issues for the Missoulian, “Last Stand” soon becomes the story of his disillusionment with journalism itself. Manning had stumbled across an important story when he learned that two out-of-state lumber companies, in order to improve short-term profitability, had abandoned sustained-yield logging for massive clear-cutting, but his disclosures didn’t sit well with the paper’s management; Manning’s stories were softened and delayed and, ultimately, his professionalism questioned. The series later won a journalistic award, but in reality Manning had indeed become something less--or more--than a professional journalist, for he had come to understand that the agenda of journalism itself is too narrow, and too motivated by money, to deserve unwavering respect. “Last Stand” is an unusual and brave book, one that demonstrates that personal integrity is more important than received professional wisdom.