Debunked!: Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Evil Plots of the 21st Century
Newspaper columnist and TV movie reviewer Roeper takes on a variety of widely believed myths about pop culture, politics, sports, business, and even religion. He approaches his targets—whether conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Princess Diana or those mysterious faces appearing on food products—from a commonsensical point of view, asking simply, Where’s the evidence? For instance, you’ve heard that it wasn’t the airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center on 9/11 that caused the towers to fall, but rather that the collapse resulted from the towers being rigged with explosives in advance. Perfectly logical, except that the biggest piece of evidence in support of the theory (that jet fuel doesn’t burn at a temperature high enough to melt steel) is irrelevant (because the steel of the towers wouldn’t need to melt, just weaken and buckle). Along with pointing out why much-loved legends are asinine, Roeper isn’t above going for laughs (and getting most of them). Recommend this one to fans of Al Franken’s Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) or the works of noted skeptics James Randi, Robert Baker, and Michael Shermer. --David Pitt