Splinters

Just in from the publishing wing of Disinformation: Alexandra Kitty's Don't Believe It!: How Lies Become News. It's a chunky analysis of how news is manipulated by journalists and the agendas of the companies they work for. I've flicked through it already and found it to be written in a primer style, which will make it a very useful reference tool for those at journalism school and the like - there's a whole chapter on definitions of terms, for example. Beyond that there's numerous chapters on particular topics like "Reporter As Hero/Villain", "Logic Versus Emotion", "Being A Savvy News Consumer", etc, backed up with lots of case histories.

The writing itself is quite dry and the book sadly doesn't really lend itself to being read cover to cover. To my mind, a lot of this stuff discussed in here is blatantly obvious so it doesn't really hold my attention. But there are still some key chapters I want to read to get some fresh insights.

I think a book that discusses the American media's whitewash of the leadup to the war in Iraq - and indeed, the conduct of the war since - would be great reading. Is there one yet?

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