books tagged “News”

Laura Kasdan is cruising along as the News Director at the number one television station in Dallas. When a momentary lapse of control almost costs her a stellar career, she makes a deal to save her job and keep a promise and moves to a smaller station, where she meets a charismatic reporter who promises to turn her well-ordered world upside down. [via]

The publication of Death and the Penguin, Andrey Kurkov's debut novel, heralds a unique new voice in post-soviet satire. Set in the Ukraine in the years immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this dark, deadpan tale chronicles the journalistic career of Victor, who shares a flat with Misha, his depressed Penguin, rescued from the under-funded zoo in Kiev. Victor is asked to write obelisks, obituaries, for a prominent city paper about notable figures in the community, and quickly transforms himself from struggling writer to wealthy journalist. It soon becomes apparent that there is a more sinister motive at play, and Victor finds himself descending in a Kafkaesque realm of suspicion and unease.

This strange, thoughtful and gentle novel will leave the reader satisfied and perplexed at its conclusion. Kurkov seems to question whether Victor or the Penguin is lonelier and more out of place in his environment. The Death in the title is ever present, though not in an oppressive way, but this also makes one want to question Victor's belief that a long hard life is better than a quick death. Many comparisons will undoubtedly be made between Kurkov's novel and the writing of other authors from the former Soviet republics to make it to print in the United Kingdom. Certainly it's fair to say that this belongs to the tradition of Russian satire made well known in this country by writers such as Mikhail Bulgakov and Venedikt Yarofeev. It is also interesting to read this alongside the works of contemporaries such as Evgenev Popov and Viktor Pelevin. However, where Pelevin drifts off into the fantastical and esoteric, Kurkov keeps it deadpan and very real. It is important to remember that many of the strange events that occur in this book are grounded in fact: amals really were given away by Kiev zoo--truth is often stranger than fiction. --Iain Robinson [via]

Dave Eggers, Matt Groening, Ken Burns, and Conan O'Brien agree: The Onion, that scrappy mag ruthlessly satirizing madcap modern life and earnest newspaper journalism, is funnier than reality. Dispatches from the Tenth Circle: The Best of the Onion carries on the proud, shameless tradition of Our Dumb Century, which won the 1999 Thurber Prize for American Humor. If a real, dumb newspaper wrote a feature story about hell, you bet its headline would be the boosterish one imagined by the maniacs at the Onion: "Tenth Circle Added to Rapidly Growing Hell." When one reads in this book the headline "Arabs, Israelis Sign 'Screw Peace' Accord," one wonders whether The Onion has not, alas, anticipated the news. Their style of yuks is not for softies: the headline "Loved Ones Recall Local Man's Cowardly Battle with Cancer" may not strike the funny bone of the recently bereaved, but it's a dead-on parody of the sort of sentimental slop that cops major journalism awards in our dumb news era. If you can laugh at the preposterous world around you, and muster the courage to tear down without building up, this book is for you. [via]

In 2005, two tragedies--the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina--turned CNN reporter Anderson Cooper into a media celebrity. Dispatches from the Edge, Cooper's memoir of "war, disasters and survival," is a brief but powerful chronicle of Cooper's ascent to stardom and his struggle with his own tragedies and demons. Cooper was 10 years old when his father, Wyatt Cooper, died during heart bypass surgery. He was 20 when his beloved older brother, Carter, committed suicide by jumping off his mother's penthouse balcony (his mother, by the way, being Gloria Vanderbilt). The losses profoundly affected Cooper, who fled home after college to work as a freelance journalist for Channel One, the classroom news service. Covering tragedies in far-flung places like Burma, Vietnam, and Somalia, Cooper quickly learned that "as a journalist, no matter ... how respectful you are, part of your brain remains focused on how to capture the horror you see, how to package it, present it to others." Cooper's description of these horrors, from war-ravaged Baghdad to famine-wracked Niger, is poignant but surprisingly unsentimental. In Niger, Cooper writes, he is chagrined, then resigned, when he catches himself looking for the "worst cases" to commit to film. "They die, I live. It's the way of the world," he writes. In the final section of Dispatches, Cooper describes covering Hurricane Katrina, the story that made him famous. The transcript of his showdown with Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu (in which Cooper tells Landrieu people in New Orleans are "ashamed of what is happening in this country right now") is worth the price of admission on its own. Cooper's memoir leaves some questions unanswered--there's frustratingly little about his personal life, for example--but remains a vivid, modest self-portrait by a man who is proving himself to be an admirable, courageous leader in a medium that could use more like him. --Erica C. Barnett [via]

Working from a small apartment in Hollywood, Matt Drudge became one of the country's most notorious journalists when he reported that Newsweek had spiked a story about a sexual relationship between President Clinton and a certain White House intern. Of course, there are many (mostly professional reporters) who argue that Drudge should not be labeled a journalist at all, and it is upon this issue that the Drudge Manifesto is based. As Drudge notes, he has "no budget, no bosses, no deadline," and as a result of this independence he is both feared and reviled, admired and respected. Ostracized by the establishment he may be, but his popular appeal is undeniable: the Drudge Report Web site received over 240 million hits in 1999, and the numbers are rising. Members of the White House staff check in daily, as do many of the media elite who viciously denounce Drudge in public. Like it or not, he has become a force in Internet journalism.

Drudge collaborated with Julia "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again" Phillips to produce a writing style that reads like a breathless and often disjointed e-mail. But the book is a vehicle for ideas, not sparkling prose, and its value lies in Drudge's assessment of the current state of the media as well as his take on its future. One of the most interesting (and certainly the clearest) parts is a transcript of a Q&A session conducted at the National Press Club on June 2, 1998, which lays out Drudge's manifesto better than the book itself. The NPC is hostile territory for Drudge, and, unsurprisingly, he is grilled by moderator Doug Harbrecht. In the end, Drudge makes a strong and thoughtful case for his methods and his right to be a reporter. And he gets in plenty of zingers of his own: "You know, these questions are pretty tough, and I think if you directed this type of tough questioning to the White House, there'd be no need for someone like me, quite frankly."

This is also a chance for Drudge to sound off. He boasts of beating CNN (by eight minutes) to the announcement of Princess Diana's death; of being the first to report Bob Dole's selection of Jack Kemp as his running mate; of his scoop of the Microsoft-NBC merger. He replays the events surrounding his decision to release the Lewinsky information on January 17, 1998 (the book is dedicated to Linda R. Tripp), and volunteers his favorite Web sites and sources. His book is not only a manifesto but a manual for anyone interested in following his lead. "With a modem, a phone jack, and an inexpensive computer, your newsroom can be your living room, your bedroom... your bathroom, if you're so inclined," he writes. In today's media climate, that's the way it is. --Shawn Carkonen [via]

Everything You Know Is Wrong follows the underground classic You Are Being Lied To--a provocative anti-media book which proclaimed, "once you read [it] you'll wonder if anything you know is right". Everything is an excellent collection by any standards. As incendiary as its precursor it contains a number of highly incisive articles, which, despite coming from the usual suspects, manage to inform and disturb in fairly equal measure. Naomi Klein, of No Logo fame, reminds us that the one lesson that must be learned from the atrocity that was 9/11 is that it is "the boring stuff that binds us all together [that is] the foundation of all our future security". Respected American historian Howard Zinn (writer of the bestselling A People's History of the United States) provides a chapter on the forgotten Colorado Coal Strike. Peter Breggin (Toxic Psychiatry) reminds us of the scandal surrounding the psychiatric drugging of children to enforce highly questionable behavioural norms. There are challenging essays concerning TV (and how bad it is for us), about the (lack of) youth violence, about US foreign policy and much more besides. This is a big, baggy, coffee-table book of iconoclastic journalism. And it is certainly worth the eye-popping ride. --Mark Thwaite [via]

This book takes a pictorial look at the nation from above, with dazzling full-color photographs of each region of the United States of America. These territories continue to reach out to settlers and travelers, challenging those who would try to conquer its mountains, rivers, and canyons as well as those who try get to know its patchwork quilt of people and regional cultural variations. The reader takes a thrilling journey over mountains, deserts, mighty rivers, swaths of farmland, and the great cities and landmark skyscrapers, all shown from an aerial vantage point. The design of the pages is carefully planned to bring out the panoramic qualities of the exceptionally beautiful photographs. The reduced album format of the book has been chosen to emphasize the wide-angle approach of the pictures. [via]

Signed on the free endpaper by heart surgeon Michael DeBakey. [via]

Hot off the reprint presses!

Onion fans hear this! Homeland Insecurity is the largest collection of award-winning journalism from Americas Finest News Source ever released, and that means you must buy it! Featuring every brilliantly biting article printed in The Onion between November 2004 and December 2005, a time in our countrys history ripe for further examination by Americas Finest News Source, Homeland Insecurity collects all the news reporting you were too lazy to read when it first appeared, now delivered in a handy single volume that will fit perfectly on the bookshelf of your dorm, ward, or cell. Homeland Insecurity is Volume 17 in the always bestselling and always entertaining Onion series.

The Onion is the worlds most popular humor publication, with more than 3.8 million weekly visitors to its website (theonion.com) and a print circulation of more than 500,000. More than a million copies of its various books have been sold to date, beginning with Our Dumb Century, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. [via]

An absolutely brilliant analysis of the ways in which individuals and organizations of the media are influenced to shape the social agendas of knowledge and, therefore, belief. Contrary to the popular conception of members of the press as hard-bitten realists doggedly pursuing unpopular truths, Herman and Chomsky prove conclusively that the free-market economics model of media leads inevitably to normative and narrow reporting. Whether or not you've seen the eye-opening movie, buy this book, and you will be a far more knowledgeable person and much less prone to having your beliefs manipulated as easily as the press. [via]

An absolutely brilliant analysis of the ways in which individuals and organizations of the media are influenced to shape the social agendas of knowledge and, therefore, belief. Contrary to the popular conception of members of the press as hard-bitten realists doggedly pursuing unpopular truths, Herman and Chomsky prove conclusively that the free-market economics model of media leads inevitably to normative and narrow reporting. Whether or not you've seen the eye-opening movie, buy this book, and you will be a far more knowledgeable person and much less prone to having your beliefs manipulated as easily as the press. [via]

A candid insider's tale of how the media really works and why it doesn't work the way it should, The More You Watch, The Less You Know has emerged as a key catalyst in the debate on media reform. The More You Watch, The Less You Know recounts Schechter's media adventures, from when he was "Danny Schechter the News Dissector" on Boston's WBCN radio, to his stints as a producer at ABC's 20/20 and CNN, to his personal odyssey chronicling the anti-Apartheid revolution in South Africa, to his development of innovative programming like South Africa Now and Rights & Wrongs as an independent producer. In this age of telecommunications bills and media mergers, The More You Watch, The Less You Know is an insiders passionate plea for freedom of the (electronic) press. [via]

Now in paperback: The major national bestseller that the New York Times says "tosses sand on liberal sacred cows"John Stossel -- award-winning journalist, tireless consumer-rights crusader, and anchor of ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 -- has built his reputation on his willingness to debunk conventional wisdom, no matter the source. In his latest New York Times bestseller, which has sold more than 200,000 copies in hardcover, he busts the myths, lies, and downright stupidity clogging media outlets on all sides of the spectrum. Taking a shovel to the heaps of misinterpretations and outright mistakes passing for "fact" these days, Stossel proves:--That contrary to popular belief, Americans have more free time now than ever before; --How DDT could actually save millions of lives annually, if only we hadn't been wrongly convinced it caused cancer; --That Republicans don't shrink government -- they expand it; --Why bottled water is a rip-off (hint: not only doesn't it taste better than tap, it's no healthier either!); --How "defective product" lawsuits end up depriving us of safer products; --Why it's okay to marry your cousin; --And much, much more.Bursting with facts, sharp insights, and plain old common sense, Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity is a modern muckraking classic. [via]

Sometimes it seems like every standup comedian worth his or her salt just has to do the book thing, and you might feel that yet another warmed-over stage routine is the last thing you need taking up valuable bookshelf space. Jon Stewart's book will come as an extremely pleasant surprise. He eschews the standard standup patter and instead gives us 18 short comic essays in a variety of styles that recall the prose work of Woody Allen, only with a few more references to genitals. Stewart proves himself a remarkably nimble humorist with a sharp eye for parody, whether he's writing "A Very Hanson Christmas" or "Adolf Hitler: The Larry King Interview."

HITLER: ...Larry, look, I was a bad guy. No question. I hate that Hitler. The yelling, the finger pointing, I don't know ... I was a very angry guy.

KING: And this ... new Hitler?

HITLER: I get up at seven, have half a melon, do the jumble in the morning paper and then let the day take me where it will.... Me!! The inventor of the Blitzkrieg... When you stop having to control everything it's very freeing.

Stewart is not afraid to flirt with bad taste, in fact, some of the pieces in this collection do for "flirting with bad taste" what Bill Clinton did for "not having sexual relations." But it's wonderful to see an edgy comedian taking on the traditionally cozy genre of the humorous essay, creating work that combines the wit of Robert Benchley with the energy and attitude of the best modern standup. Naked Pictures of Famous People proves that Jon Stewart is as comfortable, and accomplished, in front of a word processor as he is in front of an audience. --Simon Leake [via]

All The News Thats Fit to Reprint

Get ready for another year of award-winning journalism from The Onion, Americas Finest News Source. The Onion Ad Nauseam: Complete News Archives, Volume 14 collects every article that The Onion published between November 2001 and October 2002, including opinion pieces, horoscopes, and your favorite columns from all of the Onion regulars.

The Onion Ad Nauseam: Complete News Archives, Volume 14 is packed with material no longer available online or anywhere else. Look for a new volume every year. [via]

All The News Thats Fit to Reprint

The latest book in the New York Times bestselling Onion series includes every news story, opinion piece, news-in-brief, horoscope . . . yes, every last word that appeared in The Onion between mid-October 2003 and mid-November 2004. And this is the biggest book yet in the series. Thats rightEmbedded in America includes eight additional weeks of award-winning coverage from The Onion, including two extra weeks of post-presidential election coverage.

Here they are at last: all the issues of The Onion that you missed because you had a life to live. And each page takes 0.0 seconds to load!

Embedded in America is Volume 16 in the popular and bestselling Onion series. Look for a new volume every year. [via]

After more than three centuries in print, The Onion remains the worlds most popular news source, making sense of the world for more than four million readers a week. Our Dumb Century, first published in 1999, was The Onions first bound volume, and now, in this exceptionally packaged deluxe edition, it will be the crowning pinnacle of your Onion book collection. From the dawning of what President McKinley dubbed the bold new Coal Age on January 1, 1900, to the Christian Rights miraculous ascension to heaven on January 1, 2000, Our Dumb Century chronicles the events that shaped the twentieth century and preserves them for posterity. [via]

From the editors of the most hilarious periodical around comes The Onion's Finest News Reporting, a collection of stories and commentaries with a sublime satirical bite. Devotees of the Madison, Wisconsin, weekly will erupt with laughter at each turn of the page, while newcomers will wonder how they have done without such headlines as "Civil War Enthusiasts Burn Atlanta to Ground," "Saddam Hussein Steps Down Following Sex Scandal," "Lyndon Johnson Jr. Sworn in as George Editor," "Nation's Educators Alarmed by Poorly Written Teen Suicide Notes," and "Massive Oil Spill Results in Improved Wildlife Viscosity." The brilliant parodies following the headlines are consistently smart, irreverent, and hysterical. Some selections are masterworks of absurdity, such as op-ed pieces written from the perspectives of pylons, chemical plants, or appliances. The book also contains some choice picks from the magazine's "What Do You Think?" column, in which ordinary citizens sound off on timely topics such as the teaching of evolution in schools ("I am against evolution being taught in schools. I am also against widespread literacy and the refrigeration of food.") and the cloning of animals ("I can't believe it--imagine a whole field of sheep that all look alike!"). As with all effective satire, this volume seeks to hit society's raw nerves: homophobia, racism, sexism, even Canada--"Perky 'Canada' Has Own Government, Laws" reads one headline. But buyer beware: if Dave Barry is about your speed, you may find some of these stories (and the language) to be tasteless, if not offensive. Others will love this book for those very reasons. --Shawn Carkonen [via]

Every Wednesday, work at Amazon.com--along with just about every other company connected to the fantastical "information superhighway" invented by Vice President Al Gore and actress Hedy Lamarr--grinds to a halt as employees hasten to read the latest issue of The Onion, America's most popular newspaper based in Madison, Wisconsin. But most of the paper's fans have started reading it only within the last few years, and are sadly unaware of The Onion's mighty journalistic legacy. To combat this cultural illiteracy, Editor in Chief Scott Dikkers and his writing staff have assembled this collection of great front pages from the last hundred years. Here is just a sampling of the headlines:

A New Century Dawns! McKinley Ushers in Bold New "Coal Age"

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Boasts: "No Man Can Stop Me"

AWESOME! Nation Wowed by Tremendous Hindenburg Explosion

Martin Luther King: "I Had a Really Weird Dream Last Night"

Clinton Denies Lewinsky Allegations: "We Did Not Have Sex, We Made Love," He Says

And those are just the headlines; the stories themselves are all masterpieces of the journalist's trade. Of course, readers with delicate sensibilities may find some of these accounts a bit too risqué, and perhaps even tasteless. (Among the potential offenders: Rosa Parks's decision to "screw this bus shit" and take a cab.) But if you're looking for an antidote to all the 20th-century hoopla promulgated by stuffed shirts like Peter Jennings and Harold Evans--not to mention the best history book since 1066 and All That--then Our Dumb Century is the one for you. --Ron Hogan [via]

Every Wednesday, work at Amazon.com--along with just about every other company connected to the fantastical "information superhighway" invented by Vice President Al Gore and actress Hedy Lamarr--grinds to a halt as employees hasten to read the latest issue of The Onion, America's most popular newspaper based in Madison, Wisconsin. But most of the paper's fans have started reading it only within the last few years, and are sadly unaware of The Onion's mighty journalistic legacy. To combat this cultural illiteracy, Editor in Chief Scott Dikkers and his writing staff have assembled this collection of great front pages from the last hundred years. Here is just a sampling of the headlines:

A New Century Dawns! McKinley Ushers in Bold New "Coal Age"

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Boasts: "No Man Can Stop Me"

AWESOME! Nation Wowed by Tremendous Hindenburg Explosion

Martin Luther King: "I Had a Really Weird Dream Last Night"

Clinton Denies Lewinsky Allegations: "We Did Not Have Sex, We Made Love," He Says

And those are just the headlines; the stories themselves are all masterpieces of the journalist's trade. Of course, readers with delicate sensibilities may find some of these accounts a bit too risqué, and perhaps even tasteless. (Among the potential offenders: Rosa Parks's decision to "screw this bus shit" and take a cab.) But if you're looking for an antidote to all the 20th-century hoopla promulgated by stuffed shirts like Peter Jennings and Harold Evans--not to mention the best history book since 1066 and All That--then Our Dumb Century is the one for you. --Ron Hogan [via]

Dont get caught in the crossfire.

Iraq is a one of the most dangerous places in the worldyet journalists, private contractors, and soldiers still must travel there. This book has everything visitors need to know to get by, including all aspects of security, picking a translator, traffic, bribery, eating, the weather, whos in charge, important government acronyms, hotels and buying and renting houses, transportation and traffic, and much more.

" According to a Washington Post article, U.S. troop levels in Iraq stand at about 138,000, with a likely increase by the end of 2005 to a temporary 160,000
" Chicago Tribune reported that there are between 20,000 and 30,000 private contractors working on U.S. military and reconstruction contracts
" The Department of Defense estimates that there are perhaps as many as 25,000 private security provider employees there alone [via]

He has been called the most trusted man in America. His 60-year-long journalistic career has spanned the Great Depression, several wars, and the extraordinary changes that have engulfed our nation over the last two-thirds of the 20th century. When Walter Cronkite advised his television audience in 1968 that the war in Vietnam could not be won, President Lyndon B. Johnson said: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

Now, at the age of eighty, Cronkite has written his life story--the personal and professional odyssey of the original "anchorman" for whom that very word was coined. As a witness to the crucial events of this century--first for the Houston Press, then for the United Press wire service, and finally for CBS in the fledgling medium of television--Cronkite set a standard for integrity, objectivity, enthusiasm, compassion, and insight that is difficult to surpass. He is an overflowing vessel of history, and a direct link with the people and places that have defined our nation and established its unique role in the world.

But Walter Cronkite is also the man who loved to drive race cars "for the same reason that others do exhibitionist, dangerous stunts. It sets us apart from the average man; puts us, in our own minds, on a level just a little above the chap who doesn't race." He is also the man whose "softheartedness knows no rational bounds" and who always had "great problems at the theater, tearing up at the slightest offense against animals and people, notably the very old or the very young." He is the man who could barely refrain from spitting on the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials, and who could barely announce President Kennedy's assassination over the air for the sobs in his throat. [via]

Feisty radio sensation Laura Ingraham is tired of the Hollywood Left--and she has all the answers in this pugnacious, funny, and devastating critique of the liberals who hate America. [via]

The spiral-bound style manual is an essential handbook for all writers, editors, students and public relations specialists. [via]

It's no wonder he hates it here. Spider Jerusalem, journalist and hero of sorts in Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, wades through a sewer of poverty and high-tech despair daily in his efforts to understand and report on America. In The New Scum, Ellis contrasts the powerful, in the form of presidential candidates, with the powerless, who are begging and hustling on the streets. The satire is savage and rarely subtle, but the author takes care to show some human warmth lest the comic descend into the nihilism it warns against. The plot, largely secondary to the characters and background events, focuses loosely on Jerusalem's assignment to interview the two candidates, each psychotic and unfit for any office. His bodyguard and personal assistant, meanwhile, discover the terrors of pleasure in a post-nanotech world with unlimited credit. The election-eve climax fully captures the anxiety and depression that come from having no real choice in matters of great importance. Either Ellis or his creation deserves a Pulitzer. --Rob Lightner [via]

Hot on the heels of the first "Book of Useless Information", the Official Useless Information Society brings you another compendium of everything you never needed to know. Were you aware, for example, that dynamite contains monkey nuts as an ingredient? Or what percentage of the world's population is drunk at any one time? The vital statistics of a groundhog? Or the odds of being killed by a tornado? If the irredeemably pointless interests you, then this book is for you. [via]

Beginning with the explosion of the dirigible Hindenburg in 1937, this book and double-CD collection of audio broadcasts recalls a series of dramatic events so urgent that they interrupted scheduled broadcasting in America. The text of this package includes capsule explanations of such events as the attack on Pearl Harbor and the death of Elvis, accompanied by dramatic black-and-white stock photos. Introduced by the sonorous voice of TV journalist Bill Kurtis, the recordings of the news broadcasts revive the panic and thrill of some of the defining moments (mostly American) of the 20th century. This updated second edition includes three new events: the impeachment of President Clinton, the tragic shootings at Columbine High School, and the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in an airplane crash. New recordings from the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Apollo 13 mission, and the Munich Olympics tragedy have also been added.

We Interrupt This Broadcast offers, in some ways, a strange view of the past. News that interrupts broadcasts is always sensational and usually tragic. Of the 41 recordings, only five or so don't involve assassinations, explosions, death, or defeat. Furthermore, only the deaths of Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana represent the female side of modern events. Nevertheless, these recordings will fascinate many listeners too young to have heard the original broadcasts, and those who were alive at the time might enjoy hearing them again in all their crackling, nostalgic glory. --Maria Dolan [via]

An eye-opening look at how the top media covers world news. Explores the pack mentality that drives reporters and how it distorts what we know about global news, economics, wars, human rights and more. Vividly illustrated with incisive anecdotes, it argues that while individual reporting is at its peak, the system is less reliable than ever. Analyzes coverage of recent hot spots such as Iran, Somalia and Eastern Europe. Features interviews with media stars. [via]

You Are Being Lied To is a massive collection of articles that ruthlessly destroy the distortions, myths, and outright lies that are fed to us by the government, the media, corporations, history books, organized religion, science and medicine, and society in general. No one is spared, and all sacred cows are candidates for the grinder.

Do you believe any of the following?

• Alcoholics Anonymous is effective.
• Hackers pose a grave threat to the nation.
• There's a hidden code in the Bible.
• The Big Bang is an airtight fact.
• Thousands of species have gone extinct because of deforestation.
• Licking certain toads will get you high.
• Most terrorists are Middle Eastern.

Wake up! You're being lied to.

This book acts as a battering ram against the distortions, myths, and outright lies that have been shoved down our throats by the government, the media, corporations, organized religion, the scientific establishment, and others who want to keep the truth from us. An unprecedented group of researchers--investigative reporters, political dissidents, academics, media watchdogs, scientist-philosophers, social critics, and rogue scholars--paints a picture of a world where crucial stories are ignored or actively suppressed and the official version of events has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. A world where real dangers are downplayed and nonexistent dangers are trumpeted. In short, a world where you are being lied to.

Among the revelations inside:

• Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sydney Schanberg on John McCain's efforts to conceal information on POW/MIAs
• Howard Bloom on liars in the media
• Riane Eisler on the realities of human nature
• James Ridgeway on tainted blood and more
• Jim Marrs on missing evidence in important cases
• Greenpeace cofounder Peter Moore on environmental myths
• Michael Parenti on atrocities in Kosovo
• Douglas Rushkoff on the information arms race
• Gary Webb on the gutless corporate media
• Howard Zinn on Columbus