Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
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XVI: THE LINK ECONOMY: THE LEVERAGED ILLUSION OF SOURCING
1. Mark Schneider, “Delegating Trust: An Argument for an ‘Ingredients Label’ for News Products,” October 2005, http://journalismethics.info/online_journalism_ethics/index.htm.
2. Adrianne Pasquarelli, “American Apparel Likely to Shed Some NY Stores,” last modified August 18, 2010, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100818/REAL_ESTATE/100819812; Mercedes Cardona, “10 Big Retailers Closing Stores,” last modified August 20, 2010, http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/08/20/10-big-retailers-closing-stores.
3. Shawn Pogatchnik, “Student Hoaxes World’s Media on Wikipedia,” last updated May 12, 2009, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30699302/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/student-hoaxes-worlds-media-wikipedia/#.Tz7D1iOHeYc.
XVII: EXTORTION VIA THE WEB: FACING THE ONLINE SHAKEDOWN
1. Antonio Regalado, “Guerrilla Webfare,” Technology Review (2010), http://www.technologyreview.com/business/26281.
2. Michael Arrington, “Why We Often Blindside Companies,” last modified June 20, 2011, http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/20/why-we-often-blindside-companies.
3. Tom Mulraney, “An Open Letter to the Luxury Watch Industry—Help Us, Help You,” last modified November 13, 2010, http://thewatchlounge.com/an-open-letter-to-the-luxury-watch-industry-%E2%80%93-help-us-help-you.
XVIII: THE ITERATIVE HUSTLE: ONLINE JOURNALISM’S BOGUS PHILOSOPHY
1. Erik Wemple, “Joe Paterno Dies On Sunday, Not Saturday,” last modified January 22, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/post/joe-paterno-dies-on-sunday-not-saturday/2012/01/22/gIQATznwIQ_blog.html.
2. David Sternman, “American Apparel: In Deep Trouble,” last modified January 12, 2012, http://seekingalpha.com/article/319135-american-apparel-in-deep-trouble; John Biggs, “Paypal Shreds Ostensibly Rare Violin Because It Cares,” last modified January 4, 2012, http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/04/paypal-shreds-ostensibly-rare-violin-because-it-cares.
3. Joe Weisenthal, “NYT’s Big David Paterson Bombshell Will Break Monday, Governor’s Resignation to Follow,” last modified February 7, 2010, http://www.businessinsider.com/source-nyts-david-paterson-bombshell-to-break-tomorrow-governors-resignation-to-follow-2010-2; Joe Weisenthal, “SOURCE: The NYT’s Big David Paterson Bombshell Will Break Soon, Governor’s Office Denies Resignation In Works*,” last modified February 7, 2010, http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-02-07/news/29968588_1_governor-paterson-david-paterson-resignation.
4. Henry Blodget, “Apple Denies Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report: ‘It Is Not True,’” last modified October 3, 2008, http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/10/apple-s-steve-jobs-rushed-to-er-after-heart-attack-says-cnn-citizen-journalist.
5. Josh Duboff, “Paterson Reportedly to Resign Monday Following Times Story,” last modified February 7, 2010, http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/02/paterson_reportedly_to_resign.html.
XIX: THE MYTH OF CORRECTIONS
1. Howard Kurtz, “Clinton Aide Settles Libel Suit Against Matt Drudge—at a Cost,” Washington Post, May 2, 2001, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30046-2001May1.
2. Shirley Brady, “American Apparel Taps Drew Carey for Image Turnaround,” last modified September 6, 2010, http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/09/06/American-Apparel-Drew-Carey.aspx.
3. Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler, “When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political Misperceptions.” Political Behavior 32: 303–30.
4. Jeffrey A. Gibbons, Angela F. Lukowski, and W. Richard Walker, “Exposure Increases the Believability of Unbelievable News Headlines via Elaborate Cognitive Processing.” Media Psychology 7 (2005): 273–300.
XX: CHEERING ON OUR OWN DECEPTION
1. Staci Kramer, July 7, 2010, https://twitter.com/#!/sdkstl/statuses/17994359302.
XXI: THE DARK SIDE OF SNARK: WHEN INTERNET HUMOR ATTACKS
1. Philip Petrov, “Why Are College Students—and Bwog—So Clever?” last modified March 8, 2009, http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/03/08/why-are-college-students-and-bwog-so-clever.
XXII: THE 21ST-CENTURY DEGRADATION CEREMONY: BLOGS AS MACHINES OF HATRED AND PUNISHMENT
1. Dov Charney, “Statement from Dov Charney, Founder and CEO of American Apparel,” The Guardian, May 18, 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/18/american-apparel-woody-allen.
XXIII: WELCOME TO UNREALITY
1. Henry Blodget, “DEAR PR FOLKS: Please Stop Sending Us ‘Experts’ and ‘Story Ideas’—Here’s What to Send Us Instead,” last modified April 15, 2011, http://www.businessinsider.com/pr-advice-2011-4.
2. “Conservative Media Silent on Prior Publication of Leaks Favorable to White House,” last modified June 30, 2006, http://mediamatters.org/research/200607010007.
CONCLUSION: SO…WHERE TO FROM HERE?
1. John Hudson, “Nick Denton: What I Read,” last modified February 6, 2011, http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2011/02/nick-denton-what-i-read/17870.
2. Tyler Cowen, “What’s the new incentive of The New York Times?” last modified March 18, 2011, http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/03/whats-the-new-incentive-of-the-new-york-times.html.
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Blodget, Henry. “Post Hate Mail About Our Link to Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report Here,” Business Insider, October 4, 2008.
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Carmon, Irin. “What Went Wrong with Sarah Palin?” Jezebel, May 10, 2011.
Carr, David. “Taylor Momsen Did Not Write This Headline,” New York Times, May 16, 2010.
Chomsky, Noam, and Edward S. Herman. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon, 1988.
Crouthamel, James L. Bennett’s New York Herald and the Rise of the Popular Press. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1989.
Curtis, Drew. It’s Not News, It’s Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News. New York: Gotham, 2007.
Del Signore, John. “Choire Sicha, Ex-Gawker Editor,” Gothamist, December 5, 2007.
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Epstein, Edward Jay. News from Nowhere: Television and the News. New York: Random House, 1973.
———. Between Fact and Fiction: The Problem of Journalism. New York: Vintage, 1975.
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Fishman, Mark. Manufacturing the News. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980.
Gawker Media. The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media. New York: Atria Books, 2007.
Goldstein, Tom. The News at Any Cost: How Journalists Compromise Their Ethics to Shape the News. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.
Greene, Robert. The 48 Laws of Power. New York: Viking, 1998.
Haas, Tanni. Making it in the Political Blogosphere: The World’s Top Political Bloggers Share the Secrets to Success. Cambridge. Lutterworth Press: 2011
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Lippman, Walter. Public Opinion. New York: Free Press, 1965.
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FURTHER READING
I firmly believe that I still have much learn about this subject, and I have not slowed down my research since turning in the manuscript for this book. To continue this journey along with me, and to get monthly recommendations of books (on this topic and all others) sign up for my reading list e-mail. It currently has nearly five thousand subscribers, and it’s a great and lively place to discuss books. I would love to hear your recommendations on it as well. Sign up at: ryanholiday.net/reading-newsletter
For a list of books that changed my life, check out the Ryan Holiday reading list: ryanholiday.net/reading-list
Some recommendations for books that greatly influenced what you just read are the following:
The Image a Guide to Pseudo-Events in America by Daniel Boorstin
If there was one book I wish I could force into more people’s hands, it would be The Image by Daniel Boorstin. In 1960, before talk radio, before Fox News or blogs, he wrote a scathing indictment of the deliberately false reality molded around us by our media culture. Boorstin’s book will shake you to your core. It made me want to write this book.
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business and Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman
These are the spiritual sequels to The Image. Postman wants us to realize that there is something inherently inferior about the information we consume through visual media. As far TV producers are concerned, the worst thing that it could possibly do is inspire or provoke you, two horrible emotions that risk having you get up and leave your living room and miss the imminently scheduled set of commercials. You realize that the last thing we have to fear is a malicious Orwellian political censorship, because what we have already is so much worse: culture incentivized to be as shallow, fabricated, and captivating as possible—at the expense of what is actually real or true or meaningful. Technopoly is equally compelling; it tells us why the inventors of a technology are the absolutely worst people to listen to when it comes to deciding how to use it.
The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism by Upton Sinclair
You probably don’t know this but in 1920 Upton Sinclair self-published a muckraking exposé of the corrupt and broken press system in America. Not only did he self-publish it—at the height of his fame, no less—but he refused to copyright it, hoping to pass through the media blacklist a critical book like his faced. It went on to sell more than 150,000 copies. This fascinating and deeply personal analysis of the media was the model for what I aspired to while writing my own. Sinclair deeply understood the economic incentives of early-twentieth-century journalism and thus could predict and analyze the manipulative effect it had on The Truth. Today those incentives and pressures are different, but they warp our information in a similar way.
News from Nowhere: Television and the News; Between Fact and Fiction: The Problem of Journalism; The Big Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood by Edward J Epstein
I used economic reasons to explain why bloggers act the way they do. I could not have done this without the father of this line of thinking, Edward Jay Epstein. From his 1973 Harvard thesis, which was later published as News from Nowhere, that pioneered the study of network news (the first and last person to get access to their inner sanctum) to his wonderful books on the movie business, Epstein finds, exposes, and explains the hidden economic factors that determine the courses of entire industries. I followed in his footsteps for this book at almost every turn. I had the privilege of meeting him recently, which only increased my advocacy for his methods. I am morally obligated to press his books into your hands just as they were pressed into mine by my mentors when I entered the entertainment business.
INDEX
ACORN faux investigation, 136–37
Adams, Scott, 198–200, 204
addiction, of users, exploitation of, 140–44
advertisements, 32–33
provocative, success of, 65–66
revenue formula for, 32
revenues from, 32–33
viral video ads, 191
Afghanistan, Koran burning riots, 28–29
Agence France-Presse, 28–29
algorithms, to create content, 142–43
Allen, Woody, 210–12
Alterman, Eric, 106
American Apparel
BNET fiction about, 116–19
fake headlines, power of, 91
hazardous nail polish coverage, 125–32
nude ads, 65–66
NY store closings rumor, 151
Price is Right prize episode, 179–80
Woody Allen lawsuit, 210–12
Angelgate, 38
anger, and virality, 63–68
angle on story, 114–19
Answerbag.com, 142
AOL (America Online)
AOL Way memo, 97
blogs acquired by, 36–37
on pageview-driven content, 97
Apatow, Judd, 131–32
Arbuckle, Fatty, 78
Armstrong, Lance, 142
Arrington, Michael
blackmail tactics by, 159–60
conflicts of interest, profiting from, 38
on iterative journalism, 167, 175
See also TechCrunch
Ars Technica, 37, 84
Assange, Julian, 209–11
Associated Content, 44
Associated Press (AP), 12
TheAtlantic.com, 88
Autoblog, 42
Awl, The, 43, 46
Axon, Samuel, 103
B5Media, 36
Bagdikian, Ben, 82
Ballas, Lambros, 52
Bardella, Kurt, 17
Becker, Gary, 105
Bennett, James Gordon, Sr., 78, 80
Biggs, John, 115
Bin Laden, Osama, 171–72, 192
blackmail, by blogs, 158–64
Blakeley, Richard, 208
Bleacher Report, 27
Blodget, Henry, 43, 145, 181, 219–20. See also Business Insider
Blogger Bootcamp, 108, 115
bloggers
compensation methods for, 42–44
conflicts of interest, profiting from, 37–38, 47
hiring criteria, 42
lucrative jobs, moving to, 45–46
manipulating. see manipulating bloggers
Bloglines, 83
blogs, 32–35
content/stories of. see stories/information
defined, 13
earnings/profits. see revenues
future view, 230–36
link economy, 150–56
and media manipulation. see manipulating bloggers
metrics, use of, 96–104
name-building by, 35–36
negative impact of. see blog toxicity
in newsmaking chain, 18–29
tricking the reader, 70–74
virality, creating, 63–68
as Yellow Press, 79–80, 82–85
blog toxicity
ACORN faux investigation, 136–37
Adams (Scott), attacks on, 198–200
algorithmically created media, 142–43
American Apparel hazardous nail polish story, 125–32
Assange coverage, 209–11
blog-sponsored conferences, 191–92
Blumenthal (Sidney) spouse abuse rumor, 179
corrections, nonexistence of, 129–30, 178–86
Daily Show, The, sexism story, 128–31
degradation, 208–13
Detroit in ruins slideshow, 61–63
fear/blackmail and blogs, 158–64
fund-raising example, 18–19
gossip piece, starting, 26–27
headlines, misleading/fake, 89, 91, 92, 93, 129
items to watch for, 224–25
iterative journalism, 166–86
Koran burning riots, 28–29, 28n
and link economy, 150–56
Paterson (David) resignation rumor, 168–70