The Best Book on Media Bias.

Oddly, the best book that details the workings of the news media is "The Myth of Heterosexual Aids" by Michael Fumento. Disclaimer: It is not anti-gay. It is truthful and sometimes truth is not politically correct.

There are stories within stories in this book. The author got fired from his job for writing it. He was pretty much frozen out by the major media in promoting his book. "TMOHA" repeatedly disappeared from store shelves without the benefit of purchase.

I won't offer a review of "TMOHA" now, but I might post one in the future. The 80's and 90's saw a gold rush of books that challenged the orthodox point of view. Everything from government conspiracies to challenging the premise that HIV causes AIDS. "The Myth of Heterosexual Aids" is not one of those books.

"TMOHA" deals mostly with the way the news media covered the AIDS epidemic. There are lessons larger, more universal, more generic than the subject of AIDS. One, the media deal in popular truth. They will be completely honest when honesty is welcomed. When truth is popular, truth rains from the heavens. When the media encounter resistance for reporting truthfully, they issue umbrellas.

Two, the bias for popular truth results in a policy of selective truth. Three, selective truth creates a sliding scale of honesty. Four, one can be just as deceitful with selective truth as with overt falsehoods. Sins of omission can be just as fraudulent as sins of commission.

The media were guilty of a few errors of commission. Repeating a bogus slogan like "AIDS is an equal opportunity disease" would constitute a lie. And occassionally, they did lie. But mostly the mainstream media created a myth with the telling of selective truth. They willfully informed us that heterosexuals were the fastest-rising victim demographic. They willfully neglected to tell us that non-Americans were automatically classified as heterosexual. Selective truth.

"TMOHA" will open your eyes to the nature of media bias. It examines the universal how as much as the specific what. Their methods of deception are as pertinent to economic issues, environmental issues, health care and even the ongoing myth of Obama the Savior. The book is as relevant now as it was when it was published.

Interesting aside: In "TMOHA" the author exposes Oprah Winfrey as a purveyor of blatant, even flagrant misinformation. Based on that exposure alone, we can conclude that this book is still relevant.