Lies We Live By

Book excerpt: It's a sad truth that lies are becoming a part of everyday life. From pre-approved credit card mailings to college admission claims to presidential press conferences, the American public is being spun, deceived and misinformed at a dizzying rate and on a daily basis. Why is this? And what can we do about it? In this lively but serious examination of the way lies are infiltrating world, media expert Carl Hausman takes a hard look at the business of deception, an industry that is growing at an alarming rate. Uncovering the roots of misinformation in American business and politics, he reveals the way words, numbers, and images are intentionally distorted for public consumption by some of this country's major industries-including tobacco companies, airlines, financial institutions, public relations firms, and even medical practices and universities-and offers outrageous examples of some of the more egregious assaults on the public trust. Showing readers how to spot potentially false claims, he offers advice about what we can do to stop them, with an annotated list of publications, individuals, and organizations dedicated to preventing the spread of misleading information. Whether it is paragraph-length footnotes, microscopic print or tortured statistics, the amount of propaganda being passed off as fact is both alarming and dangerous. Lies We Live By shows what to look for behind the double talk; but most importantly it offers ways to fight back.