Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As an independent, nonpartisan, I was interested in a critical look at how the media writ large (liberal, conservative, neutral, etc.) have become slanted due to corporate pressures or outside influences. Unfortunately, this book is not even handed. It condemns media organizations that have reported critically on Trump, while giving a pass to Fox News, which has basically become the president’s propaganda outlet. Ignoring the last four years of slanted reporting from the president’s mouthpiece seems like a glaring omission. But where the book really lost me was at the end when she referenced recommendations for good sources of journalism and “off-narrative reporting.” In this section, Attkisson cites Project Veritas — the organization known for manipulating tapes and illegally recording interns at bars. It’s embarrassing. That she goes on to recommend other extremely slanted and conflicted commentators and opinion people completely undercuts her message. On the one hand, the author laments the sorry state of the biased media in the Trump era. At the same time, her recommendation is to seek out extremely slanted reporting. I’m surprised she didn’t recommend Maria Bortiromo or Diamond & Silk! An even handed critical analysis would have been nice, but that wouldn’t have suited her narrative (to borrow her phrase). Sadly, the book reads like a defense of Trump that could have been written by Laura Ingraham or Sean Hannity.