Tom Baldwin’s account of the abusive relationship with the truth in media and politics is lucid, punchy and often funnyLet’s begin with the parable of the triple-breasted woman. A couple of years in advance of Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House and before the term “fake news” had caught on, a Florida woman calling herself Jasmine Tridevil made headlines around the world by posting pictures of herself with a third breast. Claiming she had undergone this unusual implant surgery in the hope of landing a reality TV show, her story was propagated by a spectrum of media including New York magazine, BuzzFeed, the New York Post, the Toronto Sun, Fox News, CBS Tampa, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph.As you will have surmised, the story was an invention by a woman whose website boasted that it was the “provider of internet hoaxes”. Tom Baldwin remarks: “The reason why so many respectable news organisations would run it anyway is because it was flying around the internet and the prospect of a few hundred thousand clicks was too tempting to waste time with checks.” This is one of many arresting examples that he cites in support of his contention that the battle for our eyeballs has debased a click-chasing media and led to even worse from vote-chasing politicians. Related: Elizabeth Denham: ‘Data crimes are real crimes’ Something rotten was incubating long before Russian troll farms and cyber hate speech Related: Facebook fined for data breaches in Cambridge Analytica... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#waste time
An interracial couple navigates modern life in South African in 'No Time Like the Present,' by Nadine Gordimer.No Time Like the Present Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#south african
#nadine gordimer
#book review
The author's exuberant use of words in private is as vivid as in public.The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#charles dickens
#book review
The necessity of self-improvement and social betterment is thoughtfully explored in Sam Harris' and Alain de Botton's books.Free Will Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#sam harris
#book reviews
Google said the program, which allowed independent bookstores to sell ebooks through their Web sites, was not a success. Bookstores said it was a valuable platform that allowed them to give customers something they wanted. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#give customers
#web sites
#sell ebooks
#independent bookstores
Amazon's tax arrangements are in the spotlight this morning after national newspapers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#tax arrangements
A mob wife fleeing her past — and a dirty U.S. marshal — gets a little help from a mysterious stranger in Epperson's modern noir tale of revenge and greed.If I were a damsel in distress fleeing a past and people who wanted me dead, like Gina Cicala in the modern noir thriller "Sailor" by Tom... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#book review
Anne Tyler's latest novel, 'The Beginner's Goodbye,' is a classic mix of the author's themes, most especially oddball characters and the turbulent nature of families and marriages.When you pick up a novel by Anne Tyler, you can expect certain things. It will be set in Baltimore. It will follow... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#tangible sense
#anne tyler
To coincide with its one-year anniversary on April 18, the Los Angeles Review of Books is re-launching its website in a multimedia platform that will include video, drop-down menus, and new feature articles. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#feature articles
#include video
#multimedia platform
#one-year anniversary
A coming-of-age story by former Angels pitcher Abbott is at its best when describing his influence as a role model off the field.Imperfect Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#role model
#coming-of-age story
#book review
These delightful biographies of 294 authors begin with John Bunyan in the 17th century and ends with Rana Dasgupta, born in 1971.My assignment: Read almost 300 literary biographies in more than 800 pages, all of English-language authors, beginning in the 17th century and ending in the present... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#present day
#rana dasgupta
#17th century
#reference book
In this spooky, atmospheric debut novel, readers enter a sterile, off-kilter world of horror — sort of — that is more David Lynch than Stephen King.Threats Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#stephen king
#david lynch
#atmospheric debut
#amelia gray
#book review
'Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the World's Most Loved (and Hated) Team' makes it personal.A couple of years ago, for Father's Day, my family bought me the interactive video game MLB 2K9 for the Wii. The great thing about the game, and also its enduring frustration, is its verisimilitude —... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-04-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#york yankees
#great thing
#book review
Greg Smith, the former Goldman executive who wrote a widely read Op-Ed in The New York Times about the changing culture at the Wall Street firm, has reported made a deal with Grand Central Publishing, part of Hachette. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
"Fifty Shades of Grey'' and its two sequels, which became underground sensations and attracted interest from major publishing houses, is headed for Hollywood. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#movie rights
#fifty shades
A look at AT&T's Bell Labs documents what in its heyday was truly a marvelous innovation machine and focuses on a handful of compelling narratives.For generations of industry research executives, AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories served as an inspiration: a warren of youthful scientists... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#personal computer
#nobel prizes
Lionel Shriver deftly handles terrorism, politics and satire in 'The New Republic.'It takes guts to write a satire about terrorism — and Lionel Shriver has guts. She has already published biting novels about the failings of the U.S. healthcare system ("So Much for That") and a school shooter... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#healthcare system
#lionel shriver
#book review
Thane Rosenbaum skillfully mixes fantasy and tragedy in 'The Stranger Within Sarah Stein,' whose heroine weathers her parents' divorce with pluck and defiance.Young adult novelists are increasingly tackling darker subjects: kidnappings, drugs, rape. But few have delved into so many dark subjects... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#book review
In 'These Dreams of You,' Steve Erickson writes incisively and movingly about issues of family and race, but the novel goes off the rails with tangents.Zan Nordhoc's unhappy family is certainly unhappy in its own ways in Steve Erickson's new novel "These Dreams of You." For instance, in a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#iggy pop
#david bowie
#book review
In 'The Escape Artists' by Noam Scheiber and 'Confidence Men' by Ron Suskind, President Obama's economic recovery plan and his advisors are in the spotlight, but the books' analyses are off the mark in places.On Oct. 28 and 29, 1929, when the great crash devastated the stock market, Herbert... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with:
#hard times
#stock market
#book review
Gary Pruitt, chairman and chief executive of the newspaper publisher McClatchy Company, becomes the 13th leader of The Associated Press. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |