News and Media Books

Author and journalist Nick Davies has written one of the best exposés of the media. The book started when he saw that the government's lies about Iraqi WMD became widely accepted as true because too many in his profession spread them uncritically. As he writes, journalism without checking is like a body without an immune system.

Commercial forces are the main obstacle to truth-telling journalism. The owners cut costs by cutting staff and local news suppliers, by running cheap stories, choosing safe facts and ideas, avoiding upsetting the powerful, giving both sides of the story (unless it's the official story), giving the readers what they want to believe, and going with moral panics.

He cites a Cardiff University study of four quality papers which found that 60% of their home news stories were wholly from wire agencies, mainly the Press Association, or PR material, 20% partially so, 8% from unknown sources, and just 12% generated by reporters. The Press Association reports only what is said, it has no time to check whether it is true. There are now more PR people, 47,800, than journalists, 45,000.

News websites run by media firms recycle 50% of their stories from the two international wire agencies, Associated Press and Reuters; those run by internet firms recycle 85% of their stories from those two. On a typical day, Google News offered `14,000' stories - actually retelling just 24 events.

The government has 1,500 press officers, issues 20,000 press releases a year, and also spends millions more of our money on PR firms. The Foreign Office spends £600 million a year on `public diplomacy'. The CIA spent $265 million on `information operations' in 1978 alone, more than the world's three biggest news agencies together. It focuses its efforts on the New York Times, CBS, Newsweek and Time.

Davies notes the non-stories - bin Laden before 9/11, 80% of world's people living below the poverty line, poverty and inequality surging since the 1980s, wars in the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Congo and Nepal, the global water shortage, and the vast expansion of tax havens (a third of the world's GDP goes through them).

He notes how the scare about heroin, which is not a poison, led to the rise of the black market and the consequent `war' on drugs, which now costs the USA $49 billion a year. In Britain, every pound the state spends on prohibition stimulates £4 worth of crime. Again, the nuclear power scare is based on lies: Chernobyl killed just 56 people (World Health Organisation figure), not the six million that Greenpeace's Russian representative claimed.

Finally, Davies shows how Rupert Murdoch and Andrew Neil destroyed the Sunday Times and its Insight team, how the Observer suppressed stories that disproved the government's claims about WMD and how Paul Dacre rules the Daily Mail through fear.

When Mel, Lola, and Reuben are sent to the medievals where there is a kid called Stephen trying to get to Jeresalim with thousands of other kids, a De Winter man comes and offers them a "free ride to Jeresalim" buit they are actually planning to sell them as slaves. Then, against the Agency's wishes, Mel, Lola and Reuben dive into the future where bad-boy Brice, Mel's fallen-angel worst enemy is posing as good guy dave to protect his little brother, Dom, who has re-invented the time machine. Only,Dom wants to send his evil rellies (the de winters) into the future. Its awesome. I read it like five times and its still amazing!

This book, along with "Let's Bowl", was our son's first foray into true chapter books. My wife and I specifically picked books based on "Foster's", as he enjoys the show and we thought it would keep him focused.

It's hard for a printed book to capture the quirky humor of the show, but the writers did a good job in adaptation. All the funny parts of the TV episode are there, though it certainly helps to have seen the episode to appreciate the humor. Fortunately, whoever's responsible for the book's layout did a great job of including a judicious amount of stills and images. So even if you haven't seen the episode, you still get a nice visual representation of it.

And the book is written just long enough and with just enough five-dollar words to present a challenge to a 5-year old, but not so tough that reading becomes a frustration or the child is asking you for help on every other word.

I plan on buying all future chapter books in this series, or at least until my son's interest in the show starts to wane or he is no longer challenged by the reading level.

This is a wonderful review of the evidence behind many of the 'everybody knows that..' kind of 'fact'. Is it really true that cholesterol is linked to heart disease? Is global warming really happening? how much can we trust the experts who blithely condense such complex issues into simplistic sound-bites? Surely such questions are too important to be left to the 'experts' - each one of us needs to understand the facts for ourselves. This book helps us do precisely that.
Robin Baker does a marvellous job of reviewing, analysing and dissecting the scientific studies on some of the really crucial issues facing us today. And he does it with an easy smile, and no sign of ideological biases of any kind.

This books is fun to read, even though the topics are difficult. I could not put the book down, and recommend it to everyone I know (and now,. even to those I don't!)

This 2003 rerelease is an excellent improvement on an already great story. All of the illustrations look brighter and crisper and the story remains cute and charming as always. Franklin shares in the joy of his friend Bear's becoming a big brother and Bear learns that even though his parents are spending a lot of time with the baby, there's ways he can help as well.

One thing I really like about this rerelease is that a number of the recent "Franklin" book releases have included Franklin's sister Harriet in stories she wasn't in before, but this one correctly preserves the timeline of the series. Everything is how it should be.

Franklin and his friends are heading back to school, but it looks like things are going to be a bit different. Mr. Owl has hurt his leg and so they're going to have a substitute teacher. Franklin is worried about this, as he's often reluctant to accept new things. He really likes Mr. Owl. He's not sure he'll like the new teacher.

The new teacher is Ms. Koala. She's definitely different, very different. She uses a lot of seemingly strange expressions when speaking, such as "fair dinkum." But it turns out that Ms. Koala is a bit nervous about being their replacement teacher, just as they're nervous about meeting her. Franklin comes with a great idea to make her feel better.

A nice adaptation of the special "Back to School with Franklin." The book necessary eliminates all of the special's sideplots, such as Harriet & Kit, as well as Ms. Koala setting up a school soccer team. But this version of the story really works well, and will satisfy readers.

"Franklin Celebrates" is a Franklin TV Storybook based on "Franklin Migrates," a story from the sixth season of the show. (Hasn't yet aired in the United States as of the time of the posting of this review, but will air soon.) In this story, Franklin receives an invitation to a party for a holiday he's never heard of before.

Goose sends Franklin an invitation for a Migration Eve party. Franklin doesn't know anything about the holiday, but is excited to be invited to a party. He asks Mr. Owl about the holiday, but when Mr. Owl tells him that there will be special foods and a special dance, Franklin is kind of scared to go to the party. However, when his Mom says that she's counting him to deliver a blueberry pie to the party, it seems there's no way. Franklin goes to the party and shares in a very special event, one that both he and Goose will remember.

This is one of the strongest stories from the sixth season of the show and it makes for a great book. The characters and general look in the book is that of the TV show, but there are nice visual details and illustrations as well. Naturally, some things are left out or changed a bit, but they really did a good job on this one.

"Amreica" is spelled incorrectly (i hope)! (And I haven't read the book, so don't publish this review, please!)

These books are so cute - they are really helpful when it comes to teaching the food guide pyramid to children.

Always a fan of good, wholesome TV shows like "Full House." Nice to see a new Full House series. It keeps the fan favs, class clown Jeff & his friend Lucas, plus Cassie and Mandy. And, the Book Universe Michelle is as great as ever. Michelle writes for her 3rd grade class paper that the whole school will read. And, she investigates a "ghost" in this girl's supposedly haunted house. Bit spookier than most FH books, but still good for little kids, like the "Further Adventures" ones. (This may be the reason, to attract the mystery readers to "Full House.) Michelle's 1st person POV is a plus. We learn Cassie's afraid of lots of stuff, so kids who are afraid of more stuff won't feel alone. And, we learn the real "fhost" is actually...something you'll have to see for yourself.