Veils of Distortion

Book excerpt: A rare and insightful account by a newsroom insider of how the news skews our perceptions and disorients society 'Fake news' has become a ubiquitous catchphrase and a worldwide obsession. Yet too few of us know that shades of falsehood have always run through the mainstream news media. As news organizations double-down in their efforts to shock and entertain, more people than ever before are tuning-out, disillusioned by negative and manipulative news cycles. In Veils of Distortion, John Zada draws on two decades of journalism experience to explain how and why the news has become broken. By depicting our world through a tiny sample of dramatized events that are often far-removed from our experiences, the news warps our picture of reality. What we see is not the world that actually is, but rather a caricature of it: a simple two-toned realm in which dangers and conflicts lurk around every corner. The societal angst that results can make the news a self-fulfilling prophecy, and can turn our minds into prisons of blinkered thought. Zada walks us through the newsroom to reveal these distorting 'veils.' He offers suggestions on how to mitigate the effects of this coarse infotainment, which, if left unchecked will continue to dumb down and polarize our society, causing it to further unravel.