You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths (Paperback)

~ (Editor) "The artificial construction of reality was to play a key role in the new form of global intelligence which would soon emerge among human beings..." (more)
Key Phrases: designated perverts, electronic bogeyman, gay teen suicide, New York, White House, Northern Ireland (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Containing expos?s on topics ranging from Columbus to Columbine, this collection of stimulating articles Disinformation Books' inaugural title challenges popular beliefs on the Big Bang and the depredations of hackers. Kick, author of Psychotropedia and a columnist for the Village Voice, has collected an impressive array of articles by such contributors as Sydney Schanberg of the New York Times, in which he asks why John McCain persistently blocks public disclosure of MIA files, and the lesser-known Jim Marrs, a Kennedy conspiracy zealot and freelance journalist who discusses missing data from historical tragedies, including the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations and the Lockerbie bombing. Do gay teens really constitute a suicidal risk group? Was Jesus a myth? The best articles will surely compel readers to pursue further reading; none should be accepted as exhaustive. Public libraries ought to invest in a copy to keep alongside other sources of skepticism; academic libraries will find the scholarship uneven but provocative. [You may obtain a free e-book copy of this title if you purchase the paperback from http://store.disinfor.com; the e-book may also be purchased separately for $8.85. Ed.] Robert C. Moore, ITworld.com, Southboro, M.
- Robert C. Moore, ITworld.com, Southboro, MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"... a bargain ... well worth owning" -- Counterpoise, Vol. 5, No. 3/4

A beautiful new coffee-table book has come out from Disinformation: a compendium of anarchic, crazed, and politically radical writing. -- San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 28, 2001

For some of the most fascinating reading you'll find this year - or even this millennium - ... order this gem. -- Impact Weekly (Dayton, OH), April 19-25, 2001

It's...less radical than some extremist conspiracy theory books, yet that's something that makes the pieces all the more believable. -- Dazed & Confused, September 2001

Taken as a whole, this anthology represents an instruction manual in how to "read" the news. -- PW (Publishers Weekly)Daily, Book of the Day, Oct. 31, 2001

The only way you're going to find out what's really going on is to open up this 400 page compilation -- Vice Magazine, Volume 8 Number 5, The Summer Kids Issue

The shocking truth is not something you see every day, but this book knows exactly where to look. -- A&F Quarterly, Back To School Issue 2001

The writing is penetrating, uncompromising and pretty convincing... -- Philadelphia Weekly, April 11, 2001

This amazing, candid, and documented compilation of essays ... is enthusiastically recommended reading. -- Midwest Book Review - May 2001

To cut through the lies and manipulation of daily life, this is the place to start ... very highly recommended. -- Midwest Book Review's Internet Bookwatch, July 2001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: The Disinformation Company (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966410076
• ISBN-13: 978-0966410075
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #459,834 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

122 of 138 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Of Course, These Essays Have Agendas, Too, May 20, 2002

By	Jason N. Mical (Bellevue, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"You Are Being Lied To" is a conspiracy theorists dream come true, and an interesting cross-section of modern American progressive thought. Featuring essays by Noam Chomsky, David McGowan, and others, YABLT offers a mix of the intellectual and the borderline loony, and although most essays are well-cited, some of them rely on the same kinds of information manipulation this book is supposed to debunk.

There are several essays on how the media is and has been used as a tool to control information. There isn't much here new for anyone with a passing knowledge of Brave New World, and most of what is here is a repeat of Neal Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death." There is an essay on the Bush family's connection to the Nazis (although it should be noted that there is a much better essay on the connection of American BUSINESS to fascist Europe) and Gore's awful environmental record. Drugs are demystified, the Drug Wars bemoaned, the OKC bombing analyzed, Jesus questioned, and Columbus bashed. All in all, a good helping of far leftist thought.

The book's fault is that many of the essays, as previously mentioned, ignore large logical holes and other pertinent information to make their point. The Jesus essay is insipid, more the stuff of a whiner than a real Biblical or religious scholar; the OKC essay blatantly ignores several facts in favor of hyperbole; and the Columbus essay has been done before. Of note are the "Apt Pupils" article, an excellent piece on the alienation of those who do not conform to antiquated ideas of normalcy in the American school system. Also of note is "Who's Who in Hell," an excellent list of the different humanists/atheists/agnostics/Unitarians and non-Christians who have made an impact in both European and American history.

There's enough good stuff here to justify a purchase, but it's a buyer-beware scenario. One must not let his or her research end with this book - it's a starting point, not a finishing point for many of the issues discussed here. Don't think that just because some of these conspiracy theorists are bucking the mainstream ideas of events and concepts means that they are automatically correct; some of the bibliographies couldn't stand up to serious scientific or scholarly scrutiny, although many can. Also watch for logical flaws, because they abound. If you are interested in this book, by all means check out "From the Smoking Gun" and Postman's great "Amusing Ourselves to Death."

Grade: C+

69 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, May 28, 2001

By	Jonathan Schaper (London, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an excellent primer for teaching readers or viewers of any media the tools of critical thinking and is filled with contributions by such distinguished writers as Noam Chomsky and Richard Metzger.

Although the book is filled with much interesting factual data, Russ Kick (the editor) in his introduction notes that it is much easier to tear down the sacred cows of society than it is to replace them with the absolute truth. For example, Howard Bloom in his second article falls into the very same trap regarding media reporting that he is trying to warn people against with a rather biased, misleading and one-sided presentation of the situation in the Middle-East. Despite the fact that what Bloom does choose to convey is truthful, what he omits is damning, and he is in complete error in suggesting that the overall perception created of Arabs by the media is that of the victim when in reality, with the exception of works by such writers as Chomsky and Fisk that have been the subject of negative campaigns, Arabs have been represented throughout media history as terrorists. And sometimes the authors admittedly only raise questions about beliefs without really disputing them (as in the article Is Jesus A Myth? which fails to really refute evidence of the historical figure). However, the vast majority of this book is well researched and supported, and serves a useful purpose even when it is only raising questions instead of presenting answers by fighting against the supression of truth. Thus while the article on evolution does not present a new and more accurate theory, it does show scientists as the frauds they are in supressing findings that raise questions about our current understanding of evolution instead of trying to reconcile the apparently harmful data in order to come up with a better understanding of the process as per proper scientific method.

The first article, by Howard Bloom, is an excellent summary of social psychology studies regarding the forces of conformity and how they can blind people from even obvious, indisputable truths (I got to personally witness recreations of some of these experiments as a psychology student). The second section of articles then shows how the media can and does, both deliberately (through purposeful disinformation) and through error (usually from laziness, incomplete reporting or lack of knowledge by the reporter on the subject matter), misreport the truth. One example is the FBI citing a humour article warning of a number of made-up computer viruses (e.g. the Clinton virus, which destroys itself when it can't decide which of two files to infect) as if it were about real viruses, and said FBI report then being used as source material in newspaper and university articles exaggerating the threat of computer viruses, and by computer security companies with a financial interest in exaggerating the problem.

Following this series of articles illustrating how common misconceptions can arise both innocently and more insidiously, are chapters dealing with more specific instances of disinformation and misinformation and attacks on common misconceptions.

This is one of the best books of this nature I have ever read. Must reading.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best of the "alternative press.", August 21, 2002

By	Christian Wheeler "Husband/Father/Gamer/Proud... (St. Louis) - See all my reviews

A strange but engrossing mix of articles and essays, "You are being lied to" covers a vast array of topics and subjects, from Columbine to the Big Bang, from Darwin to Jesus, from the environment to the drug war, and many more. According to the authors and editors, these are the facts and views that the mainstream press refuses to touch. Much of what is presented here flies in the face of convention or accepted beliefs, thus keeping in the best tradition of the alternative press. (Do bear in mind, however, that the authors of these articles are not completely innocent of pushing an agenda or personal point of view). Many familiar names are here: Noam Chomsky, Howard Bloom, Michael Horowitz, Jim Marrs, Judith Rich Harris, Howard Zinn. Most of the pieces here are clear and well-written, concise and informative. A few border on the bizarre, and I found Michael Cremo's "Forbidden Archaeology" to be a mere regurgitation of pseudoscientific fringe theories. The best essays, however, are worthy of repeated reading: Ali Abunimah's timely essay on terrorism points out that there are more terror groups operating in South America and Europe than in the Middle East, something I heard years ago from a trusted source--but I have yet to hear it in the mainstream media. Another good piece is Jim Martin's too-brief look at the horrors of communism--and that Joseph McCarthy may not have been far from the truth. Greg Bishop's "The Covert News Network" sheds light on some of the CIA's actions over the years; Sydney Schanberg calls John McCain's altruism towards POW/MIAs into question; Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon's "The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV" shows how the civil rights leader has been sanitized over the years; and Barry Chamish exposes a possible (indeed, likely) conspiracy behind the murder of Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin, a theory that has already become to Israel what JFK has become to Americans.

The points of views presented are largely leftist and libertarian, though there are a few items of interest to moderates and conservatives, such as Russ Kicks' revealing expose on Al Gore, Patrick Moore's telling essay on the state of the environment, and Cletus Nelson's intriguing piece on the Oklahoma City Bombing, which gives light (and some credence) to many of the theories on the subject expounded by the far right. I do wish they had spent some ink exposing the extremes of political correctness or the increasing number of guru-based cults springing up in this country, and I would have liked more essays on pseudoscience and our crumbling educational system. Even if one disagrees with some of the opinions presented within this book (as I did), they still provide food for thought and debate (always good) and present a much-needed challenge to the mainstream media.