Kierman, a former senior writer at the Chronicle of Higher Education, describes how a few elite scholarly journals control press coverage of science news by distributing advance copies of articles to journalists on the condition that stories do not appear until a common time, a mechanism known as "embargo." Kierman describes how this practice influences the public's understanding of science and medicine, and how it creates a "pack mentality" that hampers journalistic competition. He demonstrates through a number of case studies why he believes that the embargo can affect the accuracy of science journalism in that the "breakthrough" gets the face time and the modifications or disclaimers are ignored and that therefore the moral costs and effects on policy and scientific/medical practice are too high. He recommends that science journalism take on the same methods and procedures as the rest of the media. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)