Trust Me, I'm Lying

Confessions of a Media Manipulator

De: Ryan Holiday

Narrado por: Ryan Holiday

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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Ryan Holiday is part Machiavelli, part Ogilvy, and all results…this whiz kid is the secret weapon you've never heard of."
—Tim Ferriss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek

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

"This book will make online media giants very, very uncomfortable. "
— Drew Curtis, founder, Fark.com

“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”

“The strategies Ryan created to exploit blogs drove sales of millions of my books and made me an internationally known name.” —Tucker Max, #1 New York Times bestselling author of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
“Ryan has a truly unique perspective on the seedy underbelly of digital culture.”
—Matt Mason, Director of Marketing, BitTorrent

“Behind my reputation as marketing genius there is Ryan Holiday, whom I consult often and has done more for my business than just about anyone.”
—Dov Charney, CEO and founder, American Apparel

"...an astonishing, disturbing book"

—Financial Times

“In the world of the internet celebrity, Ryan Holiday is the smart and handsome type, like the Arthur Miller to the girl who uploads YouTube videos of herself naked and eating ice cream.”
—Ladygunn Magazine
"This is a dark book with an important warning to clients and PR people alike."

—Richard Edelman

"[Like] Upton Sinclair on the blogosphere."

—Tyler Cowen, MarginalRevolution.com

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

He still may be lying

Learning the truth about the social media influencer world. This is a great review of how our society is manipulated!

Very insightful

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

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

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.