Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq (Paperback)

It rips the lid off the malpractices and self-administered censorship which are bringing the US media (primarily television, but also the print and radio media) down to a level of baseless conjecture and blatant nationalist manipulation of its own citizens under the umbrella of "patriotism".

The story I found most irritating is a verbatim quotation of a Fox News TV chat show with Bill O'Reilly, showing the shameless treatment of his guest, Jerry Glick, a convinced Democrat whose father (equally Democrat) died in the 9/11 tragedy. Because Jerry dares to oppose the host's Rightist views, he is browbeaten and eventually silenced by having his mike cut before he can even outline any clarifying remarks in the debate.

The appalling postscript is extensive quotations from a web fansite of viewers gloating at the spectacle of this mauling, and saying they would have gone as far as killing the guest whose only "crime" was to offer an alternative way of looking at his country.

After reading this short but packed book with a heavy heart, I am astonished beyond belief that many right-wing commentators still regard the TV news channels in the US as "liberal". Although written as the Second Gulf War "ended", in light of subsequent events and the continued failure to find any WMDs in Iraq, I hope a Second Edition with a relevant update on the continuing propaganda war is included soon.

Read this book. It should warn us all that the rest of the world can never stay out of reach of a powerful country with a big chip on its shoulder..........

My fears were totally unfounded. Inside I found one of the most readable, most well researched and most serious books I have read on this subject.

So, on to content. It's scary. Very scary. The level of spin doctoring, propaganda and was marketing is so frightening and overwelming that nowadays it is all but impossible to get a correct news piece from the main media sources. The quantity of news pieces broadcast in the US, be it TV or newspapers, is also flagging, leading to a huge gap between Americans' and Europeans' and Muslims' perceptions of the so called war on terrorism.

The funny thing is that much of the book could have been written by someone who is politically neutral or even right-wing: while facts are indisputable, especially when the sources are official, only some of the interpretations and a full chapter at most ("Doublespeak", after George Orwell's 1984) could have been written by the left wingers that I suppose the authors are.

So this book has many different edges, depending on your context. If you're a Bush supporter buy this and you'll think again; if you're against Bush's war on terrorism then this book will also have a lot of new things for you; f you're undecided, look no further: this book will tell all that there seems to be worth knowing about the lies and deceiving behind "Bush's war".

The funny thing is that, as a fellow Amazon client says about this book, you'd better read it in chunks otherwise you'll feel so disgusted with so many inconvenient truths. I myself read this in 6 days and am so "full" of information I just had to go and read something lighter. So it's fiction this time.