Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
by Ryan Holiday
Related videos
1:14
Author narrates official book trailer + illustrations
163K
1K
Jun, 2012
Spoiler:
The author outlines a scenario to demonstrate how fake news gets started. First, you send your story from an alias email address to a small, local blog. They get an exclusive and you get an outlet. Then, like building links in a chain, you progressively send it to bigger outlets, and the fake news story begins to seem like reality through the strength of repetition. Page views and publicity are controlling what we think we know as it’s easy to spread lies and fake outrage via the aforementioned scenario.
7:52
ReasonTV sit-down interview with author Ryan Holiday
49K
786
Nov, 2012
Spoiler:
Tired of a world in which algorithms control everything and marketers write the news, Ryan Holiday decided to expose how it’s done. The major mainstream media outlets are not out pounding the pavement looking for news stories; they’ve taken on the role of “popularizers,” looking for what’s being talked about online and then giving it a bigger outlet, often with no fact-checking or investigative journalism involved. The author gives examples of how he personally manipulated journalists by posing as an “expert” on various topics.
5:14
Key ideas from Holiday’s book described in animated format
29K
116
Apr, 2022
Spoiler:
Having worked as a “media manipulator,” Ryan Holiday understands how vicious rumors and fake news stories snowball until they’re perceived not only as truth but reality. One of the culprits is bloggers, who will publish almost anything and don’t have time to fact-check because they need to produce vast amounts of content to get enough page views to generate income. Progressively larger news outlets then pick up the story, each wrongly assuming that it was fact-checked by a previous outlet.
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