How the News Makes Us Dumb

How the News Makes Us Dumb
Author: C. John Sommerville
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2009-09-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 083087559X

We who live at the end of the twentieth century are better informed--and more quickly informed--than any people in history. So why do we also seem more confused, divided and foolish than ever before? Some pundits criticize the news media for political bias. Other analysts worry that up-to-the-minute news reports on radio and television oversimplify complex realities. Still more critics point out that today's reporters can't possibly be experts on the wide variety of subjects they cover. Historian C. John Sommerville thinks the problem with news is more basic. Focusing his critique on the news at its best, he concludes that even at its best it is beyond repair. Sommerville argues that news began to make us dumber when we insisted on having it daily. Now millions of column inches and airtime hours must be filled with information--every day, every hour, every minute. The news, Sommerville says, becomes the driving force for much of our public culture. News schedules turn politics into a perpetual campaign. News packaging influences the timing, content and perception of government initiatives. News frenzies make a superstition out of scientific and medical research. News polls and statistics create opinion as much as they gauge it. Lost in the tidal wave of information is our ability to discern truly significant news--and our ability to recognize and participate in true community. This eye-opening book is for everyone dissatisfied with the state of the news media, but especially for those who think the news really informs them about and connects them with the real world. Read it and you may never again know the tyranny of the daily newspaper or the nightly news broadcast.

News of the Stupid

News of the Stupid
Author: Gremlin
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2008-08-16
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1435724305

The longawaited revision to 1999's News of the Stoopid [NotS]: 100% free of pipebombs...though there's plenty of new stuff for fragile people to whimper about. Now in Trade Paperback.

Our Dumb Century

Our Dumb Century
Author: Scott Dikkers
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 178
Release: 1999
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 0609804618

The Onion has quickly become the world's most popular humor publication, misinforming half a million readers a week with one-of-a-kind social satire both in print (on newsstands nationwide) and online from its remote office in Madison, Wisconsin. Witness the march of history as Editor-in-Chief Scott Dikkers and The Onion's award-winning writing staff present the twentieth century like you've never seen it before.

Useless News and Other Crap

Useless News and Other Crap
Author: Valerie Hansen
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2016-07-04
Genre:
ISBN: 9781530574056

What do Strange Sexual Problems, Deviant People, Goofy Surveys, Weird Criminals and Bizarre Medical and Scientific Facts have in common? They All Need Punch Lines! Luckily, thanks to the satirical wit of Valerie Hansen, no story here has gone un-punched! From a joke writer who has had jokes published alongside such famous late-night comics as Jay Leno, David Letterman, Bill Maher and Conan O'Brien comes a book full of one-liners and wisecracks about today's stupidest news! Read Valerie's opinions on such important stories as a woman who was born with two vaginas, a man who lost part of his penis while sexually gratifying himself with a vacuum cleaner, a woman with size 164xxx breasts, a giant bronze sculpture of dog feces, a man who had sex with an elephant, a six year study on whether or not bisexual men exist, a woman who died after giving oral sex to a German Shepherd, Testicle Festivals and more!

Hot Feminist

Hot Feminist
Author: Polly Vernon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2016-01-28
Genre: Fashion
ISBN: 9781473612198

'Bold, brilliant, sharp and funny...it urges women to be less judgemental of each other and of themselves. It's an idea that shouldn't be revolutionary but is.' Elizabeth Day Polly Vernon, Grazia columnist, Times feature writer (hair-flicker, Brazilian-waxer, jeans obsessive, outrageous flirt) presents a brave new perspective on feminism. Drawing on her dedicated, life-long pursuit of hotness - having dismissed many of the rules on 'good' feminism at some point in the early 90s - she'll teach you everything you ever wanted to know about being a feminist when you care about how you look. When part of your brain is constantly monologuing on fashion. When you check out your own reflection in every reflective surface. When your depilation practices are pretty much out of control. When you just really want to be fancied. Hot Feminist is based on a principle of non-judgment (because there's enough already), honesty about how often we mess this up, and empowerment through looks. Part memoir, part road map, it's a rolling, raucous rejection of all those things we're convinced we shouldn't think / wear/ feel/ say/ buy/ want - and a celebration of all the things we can. It is modern feminism, with style, without judgment

The Opposite of Hate

The Opposite of Hate
Author: Sally Kohn
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2018-04-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1616207280

“A stunning debut by a truly gifted writer—an eye-opening read for both liberals and conservatives—and it could not come at a better time.”—Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Option B, with Sheryl Sandberg What is the opposite of hate? As a progressive commentator on Fox News and now CNN, Sally Kohn has made a career out of bridging intractable political differences and learning how to talk respectfully with people whose views she disagrees with passionately. Her viral TED Talk on the need to practice emotional—rather than political—correctness sparked a new way of considering how often we amplify our differences and diminish our connections. But these days even famously “nice” Kohn finds herself wanting to breathe fire at her enemies. It was time, she decided, to look into the epidemic of hate all around us and learn how we can stop it. In The Opposite of Hate, Kohn talks to leading scientists and researchers and investigates the evolutionary and cultural roots of hate and how incivility can be a gateway to much worse. She travels to Rwanda, the Middle East, and across the United States, introducing us to former terrorists and white supremacists, and even some of her own Twitter trolls, drawing surprising lessons from dramatic and inspiring stories of those who left hate behind. As Kohn confronts her own shameful moments, whether it was back when she bullied a classmate or today when she harbors deep partisan resentment, she discovers, “The opposite of hate is the beautiful and powerful reality of how we are all fundamentally linked and equal as human beings. The opposite of hate is connection.” Sally Kohn’s engaging, fascinating, and often funny book will open your eyes and your heart.

Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk

Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk
Author: Neil Postman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1976
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780440015543

Explains how to reduce ridiculous communication so that verbal behavior will not be an excessive burden.

Rage

Rage
Author: Bob Woodward
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1982131764

Rage is an unprecedented and intimate tour de force of new reporting on the Trump presidency facing a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. Woodward, the #1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans. In 17 on-the-record interviews with Woodward over seven volatile months—an utterly vivid window into Trump’s mind—the president provides a self-portrait that is part denial and part combative interchange mixed with surprising moments of doubt as he glimpses the perils in the presidency and what he calls the “dynamite behind every door.” At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president. Revisiting the earliest days of the Trump presidency, Rage reveals how Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats struggled to keep the country safe as the president dismantled any semblance of collegial national security decision making. Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents. Woodward obtained 25 never-seen personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a “fantasy film.” Trump insists to Woodward he will triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. “Don’t worry about it, Bob. Okay?” Trump told the author in July. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to do another book. You’ll find I was right.”