This American Life’s Ira Glass recently devoted an episode to Steve Poizner’s book Mt. Pleasant, finding multiple examples of the author inserting quite a lot of fiction into this supposedly non-fiction book. This key quote really gets at why it bothers Mr. Glass:

I know it may seem like I’m belaboring all this, putting this book under a microscope point-by-point, but so many of the political discussions in our country seem so disconnected from reality. Every year there are egregious examples of politicians and commentators who believe if they repeat some non-fact over and over, it becomes true. And the more I looked into Poizner’s book, the more it seemed like one of those rare cases that’s so obviously and provably untrue.

Ira Glass, you’re drafted.

Public radio’s Ira Glass calls Poizner book ‘so obviously and provably untrue’ (LA Times)
Radio Show is here.


And continuing to show us you can never beat a journalism professor to links on his niche subject – h/t: Jay Rosen