Customer Reviews

Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy

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Would a president and vice-president lie about the need to go to war? What would happen if this was discovered?

Historians will get a running start on the Plame/CIA trial, and resulting political fallout, with Marcy Wheeler's new book, Anatomy of Deceit.

Wheeler charts the failure of the mass media to challenge the outing of a covert spy during wartime, and shows how they have re-invented themselves as internal public relations staff for the government.

With the book appearing this past week, the timing could not be better as it becomes available just as Libby comes to trial for obstruction of justice. Marcy is providing the most up-to-the-minute news of the trial through live blogging directly from the courthouse.

With meticulous attention to detail, thorough research of all available sources, and a drive to get the story right, this book is history in the making.

Concise, succinct,well-written summary of case leading to the Scooter Libby trial and perhaps beyond. I am recommending it to all my Republican friends. It won't drive them nuts with reams of the left wing propaganda they profess to hate so much, and it may even help them understand why some of us are so enraged and obsessed with the subject.

Whether one is a "Plameaholic," or simply wishing to find that one source that will educate you with all you need to know to get up to speed on the Government vs. I.Lewis Libby case, aka "Shooter's Scooter," this book by Marcy Wheeler is mandatory. Factually accurate, well written and chock full of information that her writing style makes far more than palpable, Ms. Wheeler manages to capture the essence of the events exposing the dirty deeds of an administration obsessed with media manipulation to prevent exposure of their lies regarding the outting of a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame. Well designed and perfect for slipping into purses or briefcases, this book is destined to become a definitive reference tool both now and in the future and I can easily see it becoming part of any political science major's course reading list. The only issue I had with the book is that it came to an end and I hope in the future, we will be hearing much more from this brilliant and outstanding writer. The time for truth in printed word is LONG overdue and "Anatomy of Deceit" can now set the standard. I highly recommend it.

While the emphasis is on the Valerie Plame outing, there is more on the failure of the mainstream press. Bush news conferences mingle Saddam and alQaida numerous times with no questions from a mesmerized press.
Claims about the ease of supporting a post war Iraq with its oil revenues go unchallenged. The myth of the so-called liberal main stream press is torpedoed.

Marcy Wheeler takes a fascinating, yet extremely confusing case and makes it easy to understand. She lays it all out in an easy-to-read, straightforward manner. The timeline at the back of the book is especially handy to have as you try to follow the case.

ANATOMY OF DECEIT is an extremely accessible 150-page introduction to Traitorgate. The chapter titles provide a window into the mastery that Marcy Wheeler brings to this material: 16 Words [September 2002 - March 2003]; Deconstructing Judy [March - July 2003]; Truth and Consequences [July 2003]; The Beltway Insider [July - October 2003]; Beat the Press [January 2004 - July 2005]; The Spin Doctor [September 2003 - August 2006]; The Fall Guy [September 2005 - December 2006]. Written in flawlessly clear prose, the novice needs no prior experience with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Valerie Plame, and the invasion of Iraq to understand the story or its importance. A time line is provided that all readers will find invaluable. Readers, who are familiar with the story, will relish the rich detail provided by the excellent endnotes. The end notes are consecutively numbered from start to finish, so the reader does not have to remember the chapter number, to find it in the notes. Perhaps a second edition will include a bibliography and even more importantly, an index, but these concerns are small against such a worthwhile and timely book. ANATOMY OF DECEIT will receive very strong consideration for a Pulitzer. Priced extremely reasonably, it also has an excellent binding and has been extremely well edited.

Marcy has done a wonderful job of focusing the topic and the problems with the press and administration. Like she says in the last chapter, she does not know what will happen and the trial. The book should be read with the ongoing types of reporting and the leagal system. The Joe Wilson support on the cover will stand as a short summary of her contruitions to beter democray. Thanks for getting the book out before any more of the Libby Trial progresses.

The hard copy book shows what can be done by a group of individuals in this electronic work which is still drowning in paperwork. Just look at the organization of the chronology in this book when one reviews the organization of the chapters

Wheeler's concise, insightful dissection of the Plame outing case has only one flaw: Of necessity, it went to press before the Libby trial started.

I've been following this case for years, and I thought I knew a lot about it. But Wheeler's grasp of it just blows me away. For instance, she shows just how closely the Bush people worked with favored reporters like Judy Miller to sell the invasion of Iraq. (When Condi Rice made her infamous "mushroom cloud" statement, she was quoting nearly verbatim a passage of a piece Miller had written the night before and which Rice either saw online or in her morning dead-tree version of the NYT.)

You owe it to yourself to buy this book.

The main stream media is the primary problem in the war to make the country knowledgeable about the current state of the government. The House, the Senate, and most of all must be made to feel the power of the press and what the American people can do if the truth is known. I know that in todays world there are only half truths but enough coverage of the half truths will give us the ability to see the story in the whole and decide for ourselves what is really going on. To steal a phrase from someone, " Sunlight is the best disinfectant".

Citizen Marcy Wheeler *OWNS* this story.
From the introductory theory that blogging is a modern analogue of the older concept of citizen journalism, and why that is important today to the extensivly documented case put forth, this is the Holy Grail of Plameologists.
A perfect introduction to the now-unfolding drama of the duplicity and manipulation used to take the US to war.
This will be required reading in High Schools ten years from now.