The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media: Decoding Spin and Lies in Mainstream News

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Common Courage Press, 1999 - Journalism - 294 pages
Media critic Norman Solomon has done it again. In this latest collection of columns, he details the most recent excesses and failures of America's self-censoring mainstream media, and brings you the real story on issues like: - The irony of the Zippergate President preaching abstinence to poor women and putting millions of dollars into chastity education programs -- and the even greater irony of the media ignoring this aspect of the Clinton scandals; - The V-chip's unexplored potential to zap out commercials; - How the U.S. government's self-righteous criticisms of Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests got plenty of uncritical reporting, while the media forgot to mention that the U.S. spends $4 billion a year to develop its own nuclear weapons; - The stark contrast between coverage of Wall Street and coverage of Main Street; - Media Scenes We'd Like to See -- fantasies as appealing as they are unlikely, which include a vision of Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings donating their fortun to a trust fund for independent journalism and vowing to tell the truth even it gets them fired.From the relentless pro-corporate spin of daily news to the media's persistent lack of diversity, Solomon covers it all. New readers as well as old fans will welcome this invaluable book from a journalist who knows exactly how the media works -- and how to work it, appearing on TV and radio across the country to get the word out and challenge the status quo.

From inside the book

Contents

If a TV News Anchor Talked Straight
4
What About the Media?
11
When Coverage of Media Power Gets Hazy
19
Copyright

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