DON’T TRUST: VERIFY – A Field Guide to Bad Journalism is an indispensable book for understanding journalism in the 2020s and beyond. It explains how the news media got the way it is, helps you understand what it is really saying, and gives you tools to find the truth behind it.
The news is unreliable. It tells us things that we later find out were false. Should you believe that masks are necessary to keep children safe, or that they are harmful over time? Are gas price increases due to domestic choices, or international shortages? Is the Outrage of the Day™ part of a real trend, or is it merely a trick to get you to click?
Most “Media Literacy” programs start with divining which media sources to trust, but this is totally wrong: all reputable sources get things wrong every day. Most fact-checkers are regularly wrong, too. You shouldn’t trust any of them. You can’t be an expert on everything, but that doesn’t mean you have to believe everything you’re told.
DON’T TRUST: VERIFY – A Field Guide to Bad Journalism answers the question: How can you know what to believe?
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Book Resources
Playlist
Footnotes
- Links from all the footnotes (especially for those who have the paper book)
Data and Images
- Chapter 1, Media
- Richard F. Outcault, “The Yellow Kid’s R-R-R-Revenge; Or, How the Painter’s Son Got Fresh,” The New York Journal, January 9 1898
- Frederic Remington, “Spaniards Search Women on American Steamers,” New York Journal, February 12 1897
- “Maine Explosion Caused by Bomb or Torpedo?,” New York World, February 17 1898
- Chapter 2, Humans
- M.C. Escher, Ascending and Descending, 1960
- Strebe, Mercator Projection (licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0), original)
- Strebe, Gall–Peters Projection (licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0), original)
- Chapter 4, Truth
- Social Security Trust Fund Depletion
- SSA Depletion data (various formats, see README)
- SSA Depletion graph
- Social Security Trust Fund Depletion
- Chapter 8, Verifiability
- Chapter 10, Verifiability: Data
- CBC Funding
- NYT Immigation support
- Child Cause of Death (Chapter 10, Verifiability: Data)
- data (various formats, see README)
- graphs
About the Author
My name is Chris Nandor. I have a degree in journalism, but don’t hold that against me. I decided I hated the news business, and learned to code. I’ve written many articles and some books about computer programming, as well as lots of software. I’ve written many songs. I’ve written analyses of laws and bills and court decisions. I’ve written an embarrassing number of posts on social media and newsgroups and bulletin boards.
I write a lot.
In all of my writing, one of the recurring themes is that I like people to be well-informed. It’s a big part of why I got into journalism. Therefore, I despise misinformation. It’s a big part of why I got out of journalism.
I can’t make you well-informed. I can’t write about every issue that people aren’t well-informed about, and get them to read and believe what I write. But I can help people figure out how to be well-informed on their own.
I’ve been a consumer and critic of news media for decades, I’ve learned a lot, and I believe DON’T TRUST: VERIFY – A Field Guide to Bad Journalism is going to help you.
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