True Lies (Paperback)

~ Anthony Lappe (Author), Stephen Marshall (Author) "AL GORE IS SITTING in front of us, crying like a baby..." (more)
Key Phrases: Gulf War, New York, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Making an extensive contribution to ongoing critiques of the media, Web-based Guerrilla News Network reporters Lappé and Marshall charge that the public is served by members of "a lazy and compliant news media" who often act as mere "glorified stenographers" to the government and corporate sources they rely on for information and answers. To back up their claims, the authors collect un- and under-reported news stories from the past few years, giving careful scrutiny to alternative versions of election fraud, conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11, the notion of American empire, Gulf War illness and military vaccinations, "crossover" voting (voting in two primary elections) and electronic voting machines. Perhaps the most compelling chapter deals with the U.S. military use of depleted uranium in armor-tipped weapons. Introduced in the first Gulf War and used again in the Balkans, the recent invasion of Iraq saw a renewed proliferation of these "radioactive kinetic penetrators." This time they were used in heavily populated areas now occupied by American forces as well as Iraqi civilians. Why, the authors ask, "has the mainstream American media paid so little attention to this literally radioactive issue?" Lappé and Marshall also critique the left-leaning organizations and activists for distortions in their dispatches. Their own presentation, which allows most of the stories to speak for themselves without heightened language, does manage to lead by example.
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Review

Like any outlaw journalists, [Stephen Marshall and Anthony Lappe] ask questions people don't want to answer... -- Metroactive.com

When questioning government policies is characterized as near treasonous… one appreciates the skillful dissent displayed by the Guerilla News Network. -- USA Today

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Plume (September 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452285313
• ISBN-13: 978-0452285316
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,196,864 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth About Media Bias and Government Corruption, October 1, 2004

By	D. Buxman "A Seeker of Truth" (Pueblo, CO United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In the maelstrom surrounding media bias in the wake of the recent CBS scandal and the Fair and Balanced Parody that is Fox News, this book is a welcome change. It covers critical stories about civil rights, the electronic voting scam and the real dangers to our troops in Iraq with candor that is unmatched. While most of the criticism is leveled at the Bush Administration, I consider this book to be a truly fair and balanced look at the issues the media refuses to cover on account of rampant corporate control over the major networks and the failure of journalists to do anything more than report what they are told by their corporate/governmental masters. I'm an Independent voter and found this book to be extremely enlightening. Don't read it if you have anger management issues.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Edgy comprehensive survey of under-reported controversies, September 30, 2004

By	Savanna Reid "a.k.a. gavin_rose (user 8) at G... (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A comprehensive review of the most intense under-reported investigations of recent years, True Lies mercilessly describes exactly how the mainstream media have deliberately sidestepped and even downplayed these unwelcome news items. These stories include the questionable promotion of unauditable voting machines (as a remedy for election miscounts?), the debilitating effects of exposure to dust contaminated from the detonation of DU-tipped weapons used heavily in Baghdad, and the FDA's blind and submissive role in "regulating" the DoD's compulsory experimental use of substandard vaccines on servicemen and women in the armed forces.

Crisp, poetic sentences and transparent, original investigative reporting are trademarks of GNN, the brash, aesthetically aggressive production company the authors co-founded, that spearheads the mounting campaign to mobilize a new generation of analytical, evidence-driven citizen muckrakers. Inspiring by example with a harrowing account of their own field tests to measure radioactivity levels around battlefield sites and junkyards in Iraq, Stephen Marshall and Anthony Lappé challenge their fellow media guerrillas to create "a highly branded, charismatic, and controversial" field of competition in the lagging, consolidation-driven information market.

True Lies is evidence that their ambitions are firmly rooted in the world of today's possibilities. This is a comprehensive survey of the most urgently relevant (yet publicly marginalized) of current events, news stories that have been reported only in the alternative press. In unfolding these stories and celebrating the triumphs of investigators like Mark Benjamin and Bev Harris, who have raised their voices against the deafening silence of a broadcast news system that seems to function as the Washington establishment's push-button intercom device, they document an ascendant revolutionary underground news culture fit to seriously threaten the media giants' rigged lock on America's public knowledge base.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great current event jumpstart to alternative information, February 4, 2005

By	wanderingtaoist "wanderingtaoist" (Kansas City, MO United States) - See all my reviews

The state of journalism today is horrible and sickening. I've worked in the field for 15 years. When I was majoring in journalism in college the first rule of journalism was, accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. But that ethic has been used as an excuse not to report anything at all. What happened to Gary Webb (RIP) and what happened to the employees at CBS was deplorable. One or two inaccuracies, while unfortunate do not denounce the truth their stories present. This is what happens to journalists who try to bring you the truth, which is also why REAL investigative journalism in the U.S. is all but dead. It is absolutely essential today for people to find alternative sources of news, because mainsteam media is not there to inform you... it is there to control and influence what you think. This book is a great start for people to re-educate themselves on today's current events so they can begin to make sensible decisions and take actions in their own lives.