"#Newsfail" by Jamie Kilstein & Allison Kilkenny

Publisher:New York ; Toronto : Simon & Schuster, 2014.

Edition:First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. --.

ISBN:9781476706511 Characteristics:                  xiv, 208 pages

This was an extremely interesting book to read, especially from the standpoint of one who doesn't follow American politics very close. That being said, it did open my eyes to the strange, and disturbing ways that the "truth" is delivered to the public by mass media. I've put the word truth in quotation marks, primarily because I'm a skeptic at heart and I am aware that all sources of information are biased based on the person doing the reporting, even the information provided in this book. However, after reading this book, and seeing the differences between reality and what is being told to the public I am quite in awe of what some people think they can get away with, and what other will believe.

The two authors are the creators of Citizen Radio, a podcast that has been available for many years now. I have never listened to it myself (in fact I wasn't aware it existed prior to reading the book), but believe that I will now be tuning in occasionally so that I know what is going on. Because Citizen Radio deals primarily with American topics and such I personally would much prefer finding a Canadian version. I realize that American politics does affect Canada to a great extent (more than it likely should) In my opinion it is not as important as Canadian politics, and while I'm fairly sure the same biases go on up here I would just like to get our version.

In any case though I think this book is well worth the read, and would make a good supplementary resource for any social studies teacher who is interested in going outside the general scope of things.