Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back
Democracy Now!host Amy Goodman and her author brother, David Goodman, follow up their bestsellerThe Exception to the Rulersby again synthesizing radio interviews and commentary with secondary sources on charged issues that the corporate media too often overlook. "The Bush administration is obsessed with controlling the flow of information," the authors declare, citing examples from Iraq to Katrina. One glaring hypocrisy is the president's claim that "we do not render to countries that torture"; the authors find mounds of evidence to the contrary. They also remind us of the unseemly ties between Republican Party supporters and Pentagon contracts in Iraq. In one hilarious episode—lightly reported in the U.S. media—a British activist group, the Yes Men, hoaxed the BBC regarding Dow Chemical's apparent willingness to apologize for the Bhopal disaster. On Goodman's show, a former U.S. Army interrogator acknowledged that 98% of those picked up in Iraq "had not done anything." A brief final section highlights those who fight back, including antiwar mom Cindy Sheehan, and a former British ambassador in Uzbekistan who blew the whistle on that regime's human rights abuses. The book should be popular with fans of the show.(Sept. 5)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.