“Trust Me I’m Lying” by Ryan Holiday, brilliantly exposes the media industry, describing an underworld of yellow journalists, click-driven websites, thinly-vetted sources, and manipulators a-plenty. Holiday confesses his sins as a “bad actor” in this book, exposing his tricks and strategies as a PR man gone rogue, getting attention for his clients by starting small fires on local blogs, and watching the eager “traffic-focused” media outlets conflate the situation, all attempting to be the “first on the scene” not the “first with all the facts.” From the flap –

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.