Hate Inc. (2nd Edition)
Now in a new edition with a post-election preface
“The best explanation of media behavior since Manufacturing Consent.”
— Glenn Greenwald“Fantastic... Everyone should read [it].”
— Krystal Ball“The best American journalism has to offer.”
— David Sirota“Where other mainstream news sources fail, Matt Taibbi madly embraces his role as an honest political observer/writer/citizen in a democracy.”
— Janeane Garofaloabout the bookabout
In this characteristically turbocharged new book, now in a new post-election edition, celebrated Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi provides an insider's guide to the variety of ways today's mainstream media tells us lies. Part tirade, part confessional, it reveals that what most people think of as "the news" is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business.
In the Internet age, the press have mastered the art of monetizing anger, paranoia, and distrust. Taibbi, who has spent much of his career covering elections in which this kind of manipulative activity is most egregious, provides a rich taxonomic survey of American political journalism's dirty tricks.
After a 2020 election season that proved to be a Great Giza Pyramid Complex of invective and digital ugliness, Hate Inc. is an invaluable antidote to the hidden poisons dished up by those we rely on to tell us what is happening in the world.
“Excellent.”
—Joe Rogan
Starred review in Booklist
“An invigorating polemic against tactics the news media use to manipulate and divide their audiences.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Taibbi, a writer of striking intelligence and bold ideas, is as hilarious as he is scathing.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In a smart and scathing freewheeling analysis, the Rolling Stone journalist analyzes political campaign coverage and other media powder kegs.”
—The New York Times
“Taibbi aims a cannon, blasting [the] American media industry.”
—The Washington Post
“Scathing and irreverent.”
—The Los Angeles Review of Books
“A raucous updating of Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman's classic dissection of capitalist news. Its message is hilarious yet grim: behind the buffoonery of the 24-hour partisan news machine is a propaganda system devoted to upholding the power of entrenched elites.”
—Jacobin
“Brilliantly captures the current circus atmosphere and explores its roots in the political, economic and technological transformations of the last half century.”
—CounterPunch
“A bracing piece of media analysis…Should be required reading in all three remaining journalism schools.”
—Paste
About The Author / Editor
Preview
FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO HATE INC.
Now more than ever, most journalists work for giant nihilistic corporations whose editorial decisions are skewed by a toxic mix of political and financial considerations. Unless you understand how those pressures work, it's very difficult for a casual news consumer to gain an accurate picture of the world.
This book is intended as an insider's guide to those distortions.
The technology underpinning the modern news business is sophisticated and works according to a two-step process. First, it creates content that reinforces your pre-existing opinions, and after analysis of your consumer habits, sends it to you.
Then it matches you to advertisers who have a product they're trying to sell to your demographic. This is how companies like Facebook and Google make their money: telling advertisers where their likely customers are on the web
The news, basically, is bait to lure you in to a pen where you can be sold sneakers or bath soaps or prostatitis cures or whatever else studies say people of your age, gender, race, class, and political bent tend to buy.
Imagine your Internet surfing habit as being like walking down a street. A man shouts: "Did you hear what those damned liberals did today? Come down this alley".
You hate liberals, so you go down the alley. On your way to the story, there's a storefront selling mart carts and gold investments (there's a crash coming – this billionaire even says so!).
Maybe you buy the gold, maybe you don’t. But at the end of the alley, there's a red-faced screamer telling a story that may even be true, about a college in Massachusetts where administrators took down a statue of John Adams because it made a Hispanic immigrant "uncomfortable". Boy does that make you pissed!
in the media
Related Interest
Related Interest
Hate Inc. (2nd Edition)
Now in a new edition with a post-election preface
“The best explanation of media behavior since Manufacturing Consent.”
— Glenn Greenwald“Fantastic... Everyone should read [it].”
— Krystal Ball“The best American journalism has to offer.”
— David Sirota“Where other mainstream news sources fail, Matt Taibbi madly embraces his role as an honest political observer/writer/citizen in a democracy.”
— Janeane Garofaloabout the bookabout
In this characteristically turbocharged new book, now in a new post-election edition, celebrated Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi provides an insider's guide to the variety of ways today's mainstream media tells us lies. Part tirade, part confessional, it reveals that what most people think of as "the news" is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business.
In the Internet age, the press have mastered the art of monetizing anger, paranoia, and distrust. Taibbi, who has spent much of his career covering elections in which this kind of manipulative activity is most egregious, provides a rich taxonomic survey of American political journalism's dirty tricks.
After a 2020 election season that proved to be a Great Giza Pyramid Complex of invective and digital ugliness, Hate Inc. is an invaluable antidote to the hidden poisons dished up by those we rely on to tell us what is happening in the world.
“Excellent.”
—Joe Rogan
Starred review in Booklist
“An invigorating polemic against tactics the news media use to manipulate and divide their audiences.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Taibbi, a writer of striking intelligence and bold ideas, is as hilarious as he is scathing.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In a smart and scathing freewheeling analysis, the Rolling Stone journalist analyzes political campaign coverage and other media powder kegs.”
—The New York Times
“Taibbi aims a cannon, blasting [the] American media industry.”
—The Washington Post
“Scathing and irreverent.”
—The Los Angeles Review of Books
“A raucous updating of Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman's classic dissection of capitalist news. Its message is hilarious yet grim: behind the buffoonery of the 24-hour partisan news machine is a propaganda system devoted to upholding the power of entrenched elites.”
—Jacobin
“Brilliantly captures the current circus atmosphere and explores its roots in the political, economic and technological transformations of the last half century.”
—CounterPunch
“A bracing piece of media analysis…Should be required reading in all three remaining journalism schools.”
—Paste
About The Author / Editor
Preview
FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO HATE INC.
Now more than ever, most journalists work for giant nihilistic corporations whose editorial decisions are skewed by a toxic mix of political and financial considerations. Unless you understand how those pressures work, it's very difficult for a casual news consumer to gain an accurate picture of the world.
This book is intended as an insider's guide to those distortions.
The technology underpinning the modern news business is sophisticated and works according to a two-step process. First, it creates content that reinforces your pre-existing opinions, and after analysis of your consumer habits, sends it to you.
Then it matches you to advertisers who have a product they're trying to sell to your demographic. This is how companies like Facebook and Google make their money: telling advertisers where their likely customers are on the web
The news, basically, is bait to lure you in to a pen where you can be sold sneakers or bath soaps or prostatitis cures or whatever else studies say people of your age, gender, race, class, and political bent tend to buy.
Imagine your Internet surfing habit as being like walking down a street. A man shouts: "Did you hear what those damned liberals did today? Come down this alley".
You hate liberals, so you go down the alley. On your way to the story, there's a storefront selling mart carts and gold investments (there's a crash coming – this billionaire even says so!).
Maybe you buy the gold, maybe you don’t. But at the end of the alley, there's a red-faced screamer telling a story that may even be true, about a college in Massachusetts where administrators took down a statue of John Adams because it made a Hispanic immigrant "uncomfortable". Boy does that make you pissed!