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Showing posts with the label media

NETWORK of LIES: THE EPIC SAGA of FOX NEWS, DONALD TRUMP, and the BATLLE for AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (audiobook) by Brian Stelter

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Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in November of 2013 Read by the author, Brian Stelter Duration: 11 hours, 16 minutes. Unabridged Brian Stelter is a former CNN commentator. While in college, he started a blog about news commentary shows and the personalities that make them what they are. In a way, he has been working on this book for more than 15 years.  Stelter pored over the paperwork from the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News to help write this 2020-2023 history of the cable news giant.  He spends the most amount of time looking at the biggest show with the biggest host on Fox News at the time - Tucker Carlson. He goes over a litany of Tucker's Greatest Hits - the Great Replacement Theory , The January 6 Insurrection was just a tourist event , Ukrainian biolabs , transgender conspiracies , and, of course, the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen . He looks at the power dynamics at the top of Fox News, including Rupert Murdoch, the board at Fox News, the

HAS ANYONE SEEN the PRESIDENT? (audiobook) by Michael Lewis

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  Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2018. Read by the author, Michael Lewis. Duration: 0 hours, 54 minutes. Unabridged. Originally, this audiobook was originally written for Bloomberg View , the editorial/opinion site of Bloomberg News. Lewis went to Washington. D.C. during the run up to President Trump's "State of the Union Address". Lewis visits the press room in the White House, speaks with a former press secretary from the Obama Administration and visits with Trump advisor Steve Bannon. He also spends time with a former ethics official in the government who quit because President Trump and his administration openly flout the standards for ethics that were established in previous administrations (like divesting your portfolio of investments that could be a conflict of interest with your position in government). Finally, Lewis ends up watching the State of the Union with Steve Bannon in Bannon's home with running commentary from Bannon. Michael Lewis, for me,

ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS from the TWENTIETH CENTURY by Timothy Snyder

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  Published in 2017 by Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Timothy Snyder is a historian that specializes in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1930's and 1940's. This coincides with the rise of the Nazis in Germany the rise of the USSR as a world power.  Snyder has written up several mini essays about the dangers that he sees in modern day politics that are actually echoes from the past. Or, as he puts it: "History can familiarize, and it can warn." (p. 11) He also warns, "We might be tempted to think that our democratic heritage automatically protects us from such threats. This is a misguided reflex." (p.13) The author, Timothy Snyder Snyder is clearly warning against the movement that brought Donald Trump to the Presidency, but as a Never Trump Republican, I am of the opinion that both parties do all twenty of these things. But, I am a Never Trump Republican because I am certain that Donald Trum

FRONT ROW at the TRUMP SHOW (audiobook) by Jonathan Karl

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Published by Penguin Audio on March 31, 2020. Read by the author, Jonathan Karl. Duration: 10 hours, 16 minutes. Unabridged. Jonathan Karl has had a long relationship with Donald Trump. Karl is a reporter Jonathan Karl and Donald Trump in 1994 and nowadays. ( The New Republic , The New York Post, CNN and ABC) and he first met Donald Trump in 1994. Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley had just gotten married and were staying in Trump Tower for their honeymoon. Karl convinced Trump to do an interview about why celebrities would want to stay in his building. Trump personally led Karl on a tour of the building. Over the years, Karl interviewed Trump multiple times for multiple reasons. Because of this relationship, Karl was called on to interview Trump when he toyed with the idea of running for president before 2016 (5 times). Karl moved on to be the White House correspondent for the Obama administration for ABC and stayed when Donald Trump was elected. This book will not change

No, They Can't: Why Government Fails - But Individuals Succeed (audiobook) by John Stossel

Libertarianism thought delivered painlessly by nice guy Stossel Published April 10, 2012 by Simon and Schuster Audio. Read by the author, John Stossel Duration: 9 hours, 14 minutes The title of this audiobook , No, They Can't ,  is a play on the 2008 campaign slogan of then-candidate Obama, "Yes We Can!" Stossel, of course, is the TV consumer reporter turned anchor of ABC's 20/20 who now hosts a weekly show of Fox Business News and a series on one-hour specials on Fox News. He has won nineteen Emmy Awards. He begins his book with an explanation of why he left ABC after more than 20 years and how the culture of ABC made it very uncomfortable for him to explore stories in any way except the tried and true politically correct way. The premise of the this audiobook is that the entire thought process behind that campaign slogan is wrong  - the government cannot do a lot of the things that people want it to do, and even if everyone agreed it should give those th

Spy for the Night Riders: Martin Luther (Trailblazer Books #3) by Dave Jackson

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Good history - for 4th to 8th graders Martin Luther (1483-1546) I am reviewing this as a high school world history teacher who is looking for high-quality historical fiction of all skill levels that I can add to my classroom library. While Spy for the Night Riders: Martin Luther is too easy for the average high school student, it would be a good fit for the 'reluctant reader' or the student interested in the Reformation. The plot moves along pretty quickly and does a good job of telling about Martin Luther's big moment at the Diet of Worms and his travels immediately before and after his hearing. Some previous knowledge of the Reformation would be helpful. I give this one 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon here:  Spy for the Night Riders (Trailblazer Books Book 3) Reviewed on May 6, 2006.

Losing the News: The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy by Alex S. Jones

"the nation's traditional news organizations are being transformed into tabloid news organizations..." (p. 51) Alex S. Jones is a journalist who has just about seen it all: he has owned and managed a paper, he has written features, he won a Pulitzer Prize, he has taught journalism, he has done radio journalism and he has written several books. He knows of what he writes. Jones is concerned about the evolution of news gathering services (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines) from expensive investigative work to nonsense tabloid stuff (this week it is Tiger Woods - thanks to serious news organizations I know more than I've ever wanted to know about his wife, his doctor, etc. - but just go out and try to get some solid info about the health care debate!) He bemoans a number of trends, including the synergy type news that ABC, NBC & CBS do to promote new books, movies or shows. He is concerned that the "iron core" of news is being ignored and is shrinki