Trust Me, I'm Lying

Confessions of a Media Manipulator

By: Ryan Holiday

Narrated by: Ryan Holiday

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

You’ve seen it all before. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. What you don’t know is that someone is responsible for all this. Usually, someone like me.

I’m a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs - as much as any one person can.

In today’s culture...

1. Blogs like Gawker, Buzzfeed, and the Huffington Post drive the media agenda.
2. Bloggers are slaves to money, technology, and deadlines.
3. Manipulators wield these levers to shape everything you read, see, and watch - online and off.

Why am I giving away these secrets? Because I’m tired of a world where blogs take indirect bribes, marketers help write the news, reckless journalists spread lies, and no one is accountable for any of it. I’m pulling back the curtain because I don’t want anyone else to get blindsided.

I’m going to explain exactly how the media really works. What you choose to do with this information is up to you.

©2012 Ryan Holiday (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A playbook for the dark arts of exploiting the media.” (Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power)

“Ryan Holiday's brilliant exposé of the unreality of the Internet should be required reading for every thinker in America.” (Edward Jay Epstein, author of The Big Picture)

"[Like] Upton Sinclair on the blogosphere." (Tyler Cowen, MarginalRevolution.com; author of An Economist Gets Lunch)

“The strategies Ryan created to exploit blogs drove sales of millions of my books and made me an internationally known name.” (Tucker Max, number-one New York Times best-selling author of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell)

Very insightful

Phenomenal inside look at how modern media actually reports news, and it turns out to be worse than sausages.

Great Book

Honest and sobering book. I've always had the feeling that the whole thing is a huge theater. Ryan confirmed I was right.

enlightening

I enjoyed this very much. Ryan shares so much info on the dark arts of media manipulation.

If You Want Inspiration, Look Elsewhere

I enjoy and admire Ryan Holiday. I discovered him, if you will, as part of my study of Stoicism. In that regard, what he shares is positive and life-changing. This book, about the cesspool of Internet blogs specifically and rapid news generally, will not inspire. Holiday himself admits that is impossible, given the shitty state of which he reports. He's correct. Read this book, for your own sanity and understanding. I recommend it. Afterwards, find something else to cheer yourself up!

A Cautionary Tale

Ryan does a great job pointing out the pitfalls of publishing on the web. I learned a lot.

Solid read

The approach of this book was a lessons learned and moral compass adjustment by someone in the thick of it. I am grateful for pulling the covers back a little on this world. Insider books are good, one which provides recent examples and correlation is a rare treat, which this book certainly does in spades. Recommending reading for certain

Wake up call

While I suspected as much, I was surprised by the ease with which the media creates, receives, barfs up, and remediates the stories that make them their millions. The reasons for it? Not surprising. Predictable and frustrating. Like Trump or not, his open assault on the media is not unfounded, and yet it still rages against and for him and thousands of others... and not always seriously. As you will see, even infuriation can be faked and used to sell ad space, which is what they’re really after, not truth.


Turn off the click bait. This is why I haven’t watched the News or read asinine, popular blog or media coverage of events. I’m not interested in being one more puppet; though I suspect I am anyway. It’s hard if not impossible to escape the rapture of fake news.

This is our reality. Come in and take a seat. Your new understanding of the sh!t show is about to begin.

Insightful in 2021

Provides an interesting layer to the topic of fake news, and the intentional weaponization of identies leading up to the insurrection at the capitol building.

Read This in 2020

This book is as relevant now as it was when it was written. 2020, the pandemic, election year, murder hornets, political wars.

Reading this helps peak behind the curtain. I don’t know if thats a good thing or a bad thing.

Listened to this on Audiobook. Highly Recommend.

Book to know the don’ts of media

Ryan was really courageous in this book
He showed me the worst way to be noticed online and why it’s bad