Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

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Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator

by Ryan Holiday (Goodreads Author)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 483 ratings · 115 reviews

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...more

Hardcover, 259 pages

Published July 19th 2012 by Portfolio Hardcover (first published July 5th 2012)

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Aug 06, 2012 Eric Gardner rated it 5 of 5 stars

For all of its provocative marketing, Trust Me I'm Lying is really just a phenomenal critique on the modern media industry. Holiday brilliantly displays how the ecosystem of the page view driven media is a structural extension of the sub prime era. With that, he also shows how to exploit it. My only complaint is that he uses only a handful of examples (American Apparel, Tucker Max) but that is result of youth, not insights.

It should be on the bookshelf of every marketer for the insights on how...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Lorie rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the scariest books I've ever read - Getting inside the head of a sociopath is always scary.

For some reason I used to believe that the purpose of "the news" was to report the truth in an unbiased fashion. In reality, the purpose of "the news" is to sell "the news".

There is no equivalent of the Hypocratic oath for the media. And now with social media WE are part of the media. You can say anything you want to manipulate people's beliefs and with the internet it is there forever. Very, very...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Arlene rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you consume social media, you should read this book. Even if you consume only mainstream media, you should read this book. The two are inextricably intertwined—and frankly, it’s a little scary.

Ryan Holiday exposes the problems that arise when people without journalistic training or ethics use journalistic tools. He asks the legitimate question: When did it become our job to do the fact checking? Isn’t that their job? He lays bare the “publish first, investigate later” practice of blogging tha...more If you consume social media, you should read this book. Even if you consume only mainstream media, you should read this book. The two are inextricably intertwined—and frankly, it’s a little scary.

Ryan Holiday exposes the problems that arise when people without journalistic training or ethics use journalistic tools. He asks the legitimate question: When did it become our job to do the fact checking? Isn’t that their job? He lays bare the “publish first, investigate later” practice of blogging that shapes today’s news.

Trust Me, I’m Lying is a book in two parts.

First, Holiday describes the many-armed blogging system, or what he calls “the monster.” He gives a mea culpa version of his own dubious past in media manipulation. Emails from fake names, leaked documents, planted comments, fake scandals—he lays it out in eye-widening detail. He describes how blogging works, the economics of it, and how easily manipulated it is, because of how it works and the economics of it. Bloggers “lie, distort and attack” to get the most clicks and page-views, and more money. They “speculate, rush, exaggerate, distort and mislead” for page-views and clicks. They don’t confirm sources, so anyone can send them any rumour and they will pass it on unchecked, for page-views and clicks.

The second part of the book delves into the effect this is having on our society. Have you noticed a high level of “snark” on line? Yep. Snark generates page views and clicks, even as the cruel comments leave reputations and careers smouldering in the aftermath. Corrections, if they happen at all, are posted to generate—you guessed it—more page-views and clicks. Corrections only make things worse. They “pass along rumours as fact and rehash post from other blogs without checking them. It’s impossible to fight back against that. The Internet is the problem here, not the solution,” he writes.

Here’s some of his advice from “How to Read a Blog”:
•"When you see ‘Sources tell us . . .’ know that these sources are not vetted, they are rarely corroborated, and they are desperate for attention.
•"When you see ‘Updated’ on a story or article know that no one actually bothered to rework the story in light of the new facts—they just copied and pasted some shit at the bottom of the article.”
•"When you see ‘We’re hearing reports’ know that reports could mean anything from random mentions on Twitter to message board posts, or worse.”

You get the idea.

We can’t take the internet out of the hands of bloggers; it’s too big and too wide for that. What we can do is change our awareness level and build up our cynicism muscles, so we don’t believe rumours so quickly, and we won’t add that one extra click or link to an unsubstantiated rumour.

We need to change our habits.
(less)

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Dec 19, 2012 Lilian Cheng rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was drawn to this book because of its cover (I'm a sucker for illustrative covers) which stood out amongst the host of non-fiction with covers that look like Daniel Pink or Malcolm Gladwell rip-offs. Usually, my non-fiction book picks revolve around social phenomena or psychology (which explains my affinity for Malcolm Gladwell and David Eagleman)--Ryan Holiday's Trust Me, I'm Lying is no different. Holiday exposes how social media has devalued truth and how viral content it ruins innocent peo...more I was drawn to this book because of its cover (I'm a sucker for illustrative covers) which stood out amongst the host of non-fiction with covers that look like Daniel Pink or Malcolm Gladwell rip-offs. Usually, my non-fiction book picks revolve around social phenomena or psychology (which explains my affinity for Malcolm Gladwell and David Eagleman)--Ryan Holiday's Trust Me, I'm Lying is no different. Holiday exposes how social media has devalued truth and how viral content it ruins innocent people in the most sinister ways. In this two-part book, Holiday teaches you how to exploit the media for your own gain, and why you should think twice before you do so.

Read this book before you click another slideshow or an enticing headline with a question mark at the end.
This book has made me consider my Internet browsing habits, and who is profiting because of it. With every click, someone is profiting off ad revenue. I will never see a slideshow the same way again. Or misleading headlines. Just yesterday, I clicked on a link that proclaimed a seven-year girl saved her mom by slapping her with pizza (I found it amusing that the book used the same event in one of its examples.) Turns out pizza isn't as life-saving as I thought, and the mom was probably saved by emergency personnel instead of tomato sauce.

Lying is Great for Publicity...but you still probably shouldn't do it, because you just might ruin someone's life
So maybe page-clicks aren't such a big deal. It's not like they are taking MY money. But more importantly, the book explains how easy it is to manipulate media, especially social media with little to no publishing integrity and ravenous bloggers hopping to gain as many page-views as possible. It is easy to "bribe" bloggers to write whatever you want (even if completely false.) And if you do it enough, you might find your false story turn "true." But Holiday gives us the other side of the coin. If it is that simple to spread lies, then we can also ruin people's lives. Everybody loves to read about juicy scandal, but nobody cares to read about people living normal lives.

Despite enjoying the book, I also had a few gripes:

ARGH! This book is so repetitive!
Throughout the last hundred pages, it felt like everything I was reading was already said at least a dozen times before: blogs are greedy for page clicks, blogs only want to be the first one to leak shocking news (regardless if it's true or not,) everyone is making stuff up, etc. If I was Holiday, I would probably never have trouble meeting word counts for college. His points were already well-established in the first part, which made much of the second part read like incessant rambling.

Questionable Parts:
There are generalized points I don't agree with and parts I thought could have been elaborated upon.
I don't agree that the reader views links as a sign of a more trustworthy article. A more distracting article maybe.
I also don't see snark as inherently evil, though I agree that Holiday's examples are ones that flaunt bad taste. Humor is entertainment, and doesn't have to come with an hidden agenda. I feel snark can have wit. I also wanted Holiday to elaborate on that study about corrections having the opposite effect as intend: instead of refuting the (false) original article, corrections strengthen them. In one chapter about "using technology against itself," Holiday laments having to "spoon-feed readers and bloggers like babies" by breaking down a compelling chapter of a book into eight pieces to fit the demands of the web. If it was really THAT great of a chapter, then why would length be an issue? (Never mind, that I would never read a random chapter of a book that I was planning to read anyway. Why would I want to spoil the book like that?)

Not only was Trust Me, I'm Lying an enjoyable read, but it also made me think about my Internet surfing habits (who is profiting from my page clicks, and how DARE they!) and my own book blog. Of course, I don't care for monetizing my blog, nor do I run a highly-trafficked news blog dedicated to getting the first scoop about anything scandalous, so I would like to think of myself immune to many of Holiday's criticisms. But I wonder if there a cost to my honesty after all. And what about all the blogs I thought I could trust? TRUST NO ONE!

On the other hand, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to bloggers. Or any devious people hoping to spread false rumors about their mortal enemies. You will have a new perspective of your role on the Internet.(less)

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Nov 27, 2012 Pete Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars

How I Heard About The Book...
I've been a quote, unquote, follower of Ryan's for quote a while; as i knew him as a the marketing manager for American Apparel and the "marketing smarts" behind some of my favourite authors [Tim Ferriss, Robert Greene + Tucker Max]

I knew this book was coming out pre-publication and was able to get an advance copy to read/review.

The Lesson/Argument in Three Sentences...

This book is a fantastic expose of the new media - blogging and online news. Ryan essentially ou...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Matthieutc rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great book to understand the way blogs actually work. To understand how what we consider reality is often manufactured by PR strategists (read media manipulators).

A great quote:

Words like "developing", "exclusive", and "sources" are incongruent with our long-held assumptions about what they mean or what's behind them. Bloggers use these "substance words" to give status to their flimsy stories. They use the language of Woodward and Bernstein but apply it to a media world that would make even Hear...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Magdalene Lim rated it 2 of 5 stars

Witty headline/title, check. Great angle, check. Now, if only this were a 800 word blog post instead of a book. That would be perfect.

It was a pretty good book but I didn't enjoy it and actually had to pull myself through the book at times. The premise is exciting and I was really psyched about reading about how one manipulates the media. That, you can get from reading the book, I agree. For me, the book boils down to 2 things that need not have been talked about in an entire book:

1) The interne...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Dinesh Bangara rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first review I saw for this book said it could be finished in an afternoon implying that it's consideration as whole need not more than a full day. That kind of casual consumption is the cancer this book fully explores.

I had to put Trust Me I'm Lying down several times in the first couple of chapters. The words were so heavy, pregnant with the weight that can only come from a true exposé, that I wanted time to actually digest what I was reading. At 25 I've been on the Internet for 16 years....more

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Aug 05, 2012 Ben Nesvig rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

I hesitated in buying this. Were the reviews on Amazon actually fake like a one star reviewer suggested? Should I believe anything from an admitted liar? But I ended up buying this on James Altucher's recommendation and I'm happy I did.

This is a very important book.

So much of the book reminded me of the philosopher Eric Hoffer, which is about as high of praise as I can give a writer. While Eric Hoffer showed how mass movements evolve back in the 1951 with his book, The True Believer: Thoughts on ...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This review is offensive and I think I am the only one who think this is funny.

I really learned a lot about the damages that untrained bloggers could cause a business, political figure, and even each other. I learned about the inflated goal of how many page views a website gets and the whoring for attention by all immoral bloggers. It made me look at the websites with a wary eye for their main agenda is to attact my attention. They even made it difficult to log on to give out an opinion on thei...more This review is offensive and I think I am the only one who think this is funny.

I really learned a lot about the damages that untrained bloggers could cause a business, political figure, and even each other. I learned about the inflated goal of how many page views a website gets and the whoring for attention by all immoral bloggers. It made me look at the websites with a wary eye for their main agenda is to attact my attention. They even made it difficult to log on to give out an opinion on their websites to trick me into increasing the page view and at the same time view more ads. After reading that, it would be benefical for me to copy then paste the word "SHITTY" each time I give out my opinon on each website portrayed in this book.

I feel like an idiot for wasting my time in reading websites that tell me to click on that to lose weight, get rich, get a pecker stretcher (they probably would send me a rubber chicken on a stretcher), get a hot girlfriend, and many other secrets to happiness.

I am surprised the author did not mention one guilt trip internet charities lay on me. One strong example is putting a stop clock in a pop up, with the statement, "Every Forty Five Seconds, a Eithopia Child Dies." Then forty five, forty four, forty three... First of all it takes me at least one minute for me to get off the porn website that I was watching. Second of all how many children have to die before I decide to cease viewing porn? How many is forty five seconds in ten hours? Who knows?

While I agree with the author that soul crushing snark is wrong, I can't help but think some of them are pretty damn funny. Especially the one about a public figure living in a masturbatorium. But I could see how that could quickly turn back on the person who thinks he or she is funny. It made me ashamed to guess why Kelly Osboure got a black eye on the recent flight over and then immediately to myself, "I did not know that women had to do the dishes on the airplane." I guess it is only funny if it happens to someone else. (less)

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Jul 20, 2012 Dan Sirotkin rated it 5 of 5 stars

An Economic Hitman plays Liar's Poker

Since 2008 you've probably gathered that Wall Street and the entire economic system that props it up is horribly corrupt and broken, in "Trust Me, I'm Lying" Ryan Holiday follows in the footsteps of Lewis and Perkins, painstakingly and yet engagingly laying bare a systemic case of dangerous and soulless hypocrisy. In Holiday's case it's the deception and immorality that's fueled the rise of Huff-Po, Gawker, and every other website that's cashed in on the rise...more An Economic Hitman plays Liar's Poker

Since 2008 you've probably gathered that Wall Street and the entire economic system that props it up is horribly corrupt and broken, in "Trust Me, I'm Lying" Ryan Holiday follows in the footsteps of Lewis and Perkins, painstakingly and yet engagingly laying bare a systemic case of dangerous and soulless hypocrisy. In Holiday's case it's the deception and immorality that's fueled the rise of Huff-Po, Gawker, and every other website that's cashed in on the rise of the Cthulhuian blogosphere. It does for the new era of social media and internet marketing what "Liar's Poker" did for the rise of Wall Street back in the 1980s, and "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" did for American foreign policy a decade later. And not only is it just as readable and impossible to put down as those largely autobiographical premiere books, but it may run the risk of serving as a siren-song instead of heeded as a warning in just the same way - at least if you put any credence into the initial reviews the book is getting.

Although to a much greater extent than Lewis, Holiday falls more in line with Perkins and goes out of his way to decry his old way of life and attempts to implode the whole rotten house of crap-stained cards in on itself before it impacts the discourse of the mainstream media anymore than it already has.

On Wall Street it was the trade of empty derivatives, bets about the results of other bets, none of which were rooted in the actual production of capital. Bernie Madoff may be the most recognizable name associated with Ponzi schemes, but in a sense just about everyone working in the financial trade of derivatives, CDOs, and default swaps was pushing their own version of Ponzi marketing. And so it goes on the web, as online "each blog is its own mini-Ponzi scheme, for which traffic growth is more important than solid financials, brand recognition more important than trust, and scale more important than business sense. Blogs are built so someone else will want it - one stupid buyer cashing out the previous ones - and millions of dollars are exchanged for essentially worthless assets."

And in the same way that Wall Street's malfeasance cost people their homes and their livelihoods, the intentional manipulation of mass market blogs has driven companies to ruin, lead to deadly riots abroad, and helped march America off to war with Iraq. In both cases, there's much more at stake than simply doing the Right Thing. As you read, it's hard not to imagine the startled and shameful look on a cannibalistic serial killer's face after you stumble onto him tearing into a pile of dead babies, limbs and viscera spread across the table - I never meant for it to get this far, Oh God what have I done?

At times Holiday's logic is a touch circuitous, not too long after boasting about artificially rallying negative media coverage for Tucker Max's failed movie, he notes that making viewers feel uncomfortable is not solid marketing, that "unsettling images are not conducive to sharing" and asks "why would anyone - bloggers or readers - want to pass along bad feelings?" And although he carefully lays out how he "leaked" fake American Apparel ads in an effort to cheaply drive sales, he later laments that they were later used by blogs to case the company in a negative light - despite later observing that in the blogosphere the line between real and unreal is continuously blurred into oblivion. But these small slips don't detract from his arguments, if anything they bolster them - Holiday was submerged so deep into the cesspool for so long that he doesn't seem to have been able to shake off its last remaining tendrils just yet.

Holiday's utterly compelling book uses a mix of anecdote, history, and philosophy to peel back the veneer of legitimacy that mass market blogs swath themselves in. Their cloak of "iterative journalism" which supposedly breaks and refines news faster and better than traditional journalism is shown to be nothing more than a Vegas pastie, meant only to help turn a cheap buck and having nothing to do with decency or service.

"Trust Me, I'm Lying" is an immensely entertaining and informative read, Holiday's brutal honesty and impressive intellect combine into a thrilling and startling confessional that you won't be able to put down. Not, at least, until that blog page you have open right now refreshes itself with an EXCLUSIVE story about Kim Kardashian smuggling Suri Cruise out of the country by clenching the little tyke firmly between her butt-cheeks as she makes her way to the Paris premiere of "The Jersey Shore" movie(less)

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Oct 05, 2012 Vasilena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pretty well outlined and concise - Ryan is giving us a quick preview of the blogosphere system from a PR person's point of view. His style is quite accessible without being less sophisticated and the structure he chose makes the book flow quite nicely in terms of narrative. This is much better than some other non-fic books on the topic, simply because Ryan doesn't try to promote himself or his business in the narrative, he just lays it all out for us. Of course he has a side in each story but th...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Tyler rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Trust Me" is an exposé of the inner workings of the fast-paced, always-on, pageview-driven journalism that is practiced today by both blogs and the "mainstream" media. Holiday paints a picture of how news can be easily manipulated and outright fabricated by PR people or really just anyone looking to advance their view of the world. After representing many clients, most notably American Apparel and Tucker Max, he shares some of the unscrupulous methods he used to make sure he controlled what was...more "Trust Me" is an exposé of the inner workings of the fast-paced, always-on, pageview-driven journalism that is practiced today by both blogs and the "mainstream" media. Holiday paints a picture of how news can be easily manipulated and outright fabricated by PR people or really just anyone looking to advance their view of the world. After representing many clients, most notably American Apparel and Tucker Max, he shares some of the unscrupulous methods he used to make sure he controlled what was written about them.

I enjoyed the book - it confirmed for me why I feel like I'm wasting time when I am reading blogs like Gawker or TechCrunch, and it gave a logical, temporal narrative to how media has arrived at the state it is in today. He paints a scary picture of a world where the accountability has been taken out of journalism entirely – bloggers report rumors, and the larger publications report what bloggers have written - without making any serious attempt to write a balanced piece or get both sides of the story. Definitely a book worth reading.

Especially interesting was his discussion of the evolution of today's newspapers, and his comparison of the journalistic environment today with the "yellow press" of the early 20th century.

But the book was not without its flaws. The most glaring is that the author was part of this deception for many years, even creating many of these tactics he shares. In a book that teaches you to question every source of news, his motivations for writing it are unclear. Is he really disgusted with the environment he has helped to create, as he says many times in the book? Or is he just looking to turn an exclusive, inside story into a quick buck? He disparages many bloggers and people he's met inside the book, leading me to wonder if he just got bit by the media monster one too many times and just wanted to lash out.

The book also feels like it was written very quickly. There are typos and editing errors, and it feels as if he's saying the same thing over and over with slightly different words. I think it could have been about half as long and made for a much tighter work.

The book also takes many of the tactics that it disparages in blogs. Holiday doesn't cover the other side of the story - there are some (few) blogs and news outlets on the web that are doing great work. He spends a bit of time discussing the New York Times and other reputable papers, but he doesn't really talk about any blogs that are working, only the worst offenders of the pageview-driven journalism. He also breaks his narrative up into short, digestible segments of a page to a page and a half, giving him more opportunity to repeat himself and less opportunity to develop truly deep thoughts.

Even with the flaws though, this is definitely a worthwhile read. Ryan is clearly a very smart guy and I believe his description is accurate. This book will open up your eyes to the fact that the economic model of online media is totally at odds with the purpose of journalism.(less)

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Jul 27, 2012 Peter Knox rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, kindle

As someone that's read Gawker for more than six years (and it's many copycat industry look-alikes such as Business Insider), it was not shocking to read this dog's account of biting its master when he knew he could make himself look bad but make the blogs look worse, and profit all the same from coming clean (and likely leverage it into a legitimate gig). However I can understand how this might pull back the media curtain for some that haven't been following the industry as closely and while the...more As someone that's read Gawker for more than six years (and it's many copycat industry look-alikes such as Business Insider), it was not shocking to read this dog's account of biting its master when he knew he could make himself look bad but make the blogs look worse, and profit all the same from coming clean (and likely leverage it into a legitimate gig). However I can understand how this might pull back the media curtain for some that haven't been following the industry as closely and while they always back-of-mind knew not to take blogs as seriously as the traditional news they were used to, they didn't realize they were being outright lied to for so long and never had a choice in the matter.

Ryan Holiday has basically rubbed everyone's nose in the shit he's been selling for years and the blogs are as embarrassed to be smelling like shit in public as they usually are -- which is to say not much and they'll be over it again in a few days. But with this book looking like it'll hit the NYT list (a published goal of Ryan's) considering even I got suckered into preordering the Kindle version and paying the full price ($13.99 or so) when it should be $9.99 in a few days once Amazon does their price drop thing when a book hits a list (for the record I discovered via a @chrisbrogan tweet at work). He's backed up his claims made in the book that he "manipulated" himself into being picked up by a ton of outlets this week, proving his point that blogs only cover the story of the story rather than any actual news (with the bloggers complicit in being fed the content to count towards their post quota).

Most people should know by now to fact check, source, and confirm the bullshit published on the Internet but they either still don't know they have to or they just don't care. It's likely the latter as these pageview generated business models are making lots of people rich but rarely the bloggers horsewhipped to deliver that ad money. People bored enough to spend time on these sites (so, basically everyone on the Internet) aren't just seeing these entertaining posts akin to tipping a waiter at a diner with a click, but as actual truth-driven journalism rather than biased live drafts in perpetual progress.

Lucky the book is easy and fun to read through quickly. And while it purports to be instructional, it was about as how-to as Neil Strauss's The Game but thankfully with less narrative arch (although I do enjoy how Strauss tells a story). Ryan tries to be the kid in the crowd screaming that the emperor is walking around naked. The problem is that Ryan doesn't see a solution and admits as much. Frankly I feel like the climate change scientists who know its already too late to do anything to reverse this trend (save for federally funded third-party news journalism), except that this crisis will impact us much sooner than looming high waters and temperatures. It already has.

Everyday more people see a lie they believe to be true and even if they're later corrected they'll hold on to that lie even tighter. We can't stop the rise of ignorance. Corporations and blogs are hurting, not helping, our crisis of confidence in what we trust/read anymore. The first step is realizing you're ignorant, susceptible to manipulation, and guilty of feeding the same monster as the blogs you read/pitch. Then start reading everything online as shaded by self interest. And finally understand that that's a terrible way to live, distrusting everyone all the time, and forget all of this and go back to being comfortable with yourself. Ultimately we each have to trust someone in this life to get through it and learn anything new. Let's just start choosing better who deserves our trust.(less)

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Aug 22, 2012 Richie Urban rated it 4 of 5 stars

While the marketing behind the book was quite hyped & promised more than it delivered, I still found it to be an excellent look into 'online media' and what is now considered to be journalism. Definitely a must read for PR & marketing pros who are looking to increase a brand's presence.

In essence, Ryan Holiday shows how he was able to manipulate the media by working up the chain. He started each campaign by acting as a source to lower tier blogs that rarely do any fact checking. By spoo...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Michael Jr. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
By: Ryan Holiday
Hardcover, 288 pages Published July 19th 2012 by Portfolio Hardcover
ISBN13: 9781591845539

Overall 3 out of 5 stars

My system is set up to review fiction novels, so I will have to adapt a bit. I received this copy of Trust Me, I'm Lying in a Goodreads.com giveaway, which I have been having some good luck with lately, enough to have a hard time keeping up on reviewing them. I received a signed copy, so I guess I feel pretty cool...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Nick Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book "ruined" the internet for me. I can't read any sort of news online without thinking about how it's either the product of corporate spoon-feeding or a targeted attack to ruin someone or something. Actually a lot of what's in this book I already knew or suspected, but I didn't realize how bad it was or the very serious consequences.

The book is by Ryan Holiday, a so-called "media-manipulator." He gives an insider's perspective on the world of media manipulation. He lays his points out cle...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is worth reading for the insider's look at how news on the Internet is manufactured and how unreliable it can be. I had already long ago figured out that Huffington Post- with its numerous click through slideshows - was a scam, but it is good to be reminded of what a waste of time so many websites are and how easy it is to get suckered into wasting one's time on them.

So the book is worth reading, but the writer is clearly used to writing for the very blogs he discusses in this book, making...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Valerie rated it 3 of 5 stars

A somewhat painful read. It reminded me of a textbook for a required class that you know you need at the margin, but wish that someone could give instead provide the Cliffs Notes. It was an educational read about blogs and the complete lack of standards in on-line "news." It also enlightened me as to why we have all these "slide shows" in newspapers vs. putting all the photos and captions on a single page. I'm glad it's over, but it could have been boiled down to a long article, one not nearly a...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Claire rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, reference-how-to

Highly recommended reading for anyone (old enough to understand it).

The book is divided into two parts. The first details the strategies he used to manipulate the media with real world examples. The second covers the consequences when it gets out of hand, which it inevitably will either by someone else's design or not, also with actual examples.

I knew some of the ways the news gets manipulated nowadays, but Holiday provides a thoughtful, thorough insider's look at the topic with historical conte...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics, sociology, strategy

(TODO: Need to eventually write a better review of this).

This is a very eye opening book exploring the flaws in the feedback loop between blogs and "legitimate" news media, especially pertaining the way fake, or exaggerated stories can be "traded up the chain" (his words) from a non-reputable blog to a major news organization like CNN. This should be especially interesting to anyone in the IT security industry, since this is a vulnerability at the semantic level and not one at the technological...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Glen rated it 3 of 5 stars

A couple of things I did enjoy about Mr. Holiday's novel. It is a book that definitely opened my eyes to the competition and pressure that the professional blogger is faced with on an almost hourly basis. I will not look at some of my most frequented websites the same way ever again.
I did however grow tired of what I perceived to be arrogance on the author's part. Though I obviously recognize the need for constant self promotion if one is to be a blogger, in the case of Ryan Holiday I found i...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Allie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This book was really, really good. I'm trying my hardest to incorporate more non-fiction materials into my reading life (my non-fiction reading has diminished considerably since college, which is muy unfortunate.) This book was just....phenomenal. I especially loved how Holiday used previous philosophies about newspaper and media as comparative pieces for the "new media" of today. (I truly do believe that the advent of blogs has created a Yellow Paper effect on the news that is available for con...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Don rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook

An eye opening examination of the way media, including serious national sources, are influenced by the click economy of bloggers. Ryan Holiday is an unsympathetic character but his message is clear and disturbing. All can be manipulated. He gives specific examples. It has changed the way I respond to popular stories forwarded by friends and given me a more critical eye towards the news.

I listened to the audiobook and Mr. Holiday is the reader. He runs words together in a most distracting way, a...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Trust me I'm Lying" was at once fascinating, in that it reveals a techniques for the manipulation of new media, and frustrating in that the author presents a very 'money centric' view of media. A lot of the problems he described in the second half of the book can be boiled down to "People are greedy and self interested" and that is not so much a problem with new media as it is a problem with humanity.

Having given my reservation above, I can recommend this book if you want to understand more abo...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Ariadna73 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: chronics

Here is my review in my Spanish Blog: http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com/2...
The author of this book starts by giving an example on how; with the right manipulation; any information can become viral in internet and create a revenue of millions of dollars in advertisement fees. He explains the tricks he has used in what he claims to be his former life as a media manipulator; and he gives detailed and step by step instructions; even with examples of letters and lawsuit threats that he helped put...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Erasmo Guerra rated it 5 of 5 stars

A wild, scary ride through the online media landscape, this book is part confessional memoir and part cautionary playbook on how to exploit the system.

Who's behind the wheel of the tell-all tour? Ryan Holiday, a self-proclaimed (now repentant) media manipulator, with a chilling expose of just how broken we are and how unsubstantiated buzz can be turned into big (non) stories with terrible, real-life consequences.

It was a compelling read. You'll never skim another HuffPost blog entry the same w...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Cameron rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everybody

Recommended to Cameron by: Kyle Shannon

After spending the past four years reading and writing for numerous blogs I can say that many of the issues discussed in Trust Me are the norm. I've always attempted to avoid those pitfalls. What scares me is the amount of evidence provided showing that blogs aren't the problem, a part of it yes, but the entire system is broken. Ryan Holiday manages to hold the feet to the fire and shows how we are all getting burned.
If you spend any significant time ingesting news daily you need to read this bo...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Ryan Coker rated it 4 of 5 stars

As soon as I heard an interview with Ryan Holiday on the radio, I became intrigued by the concept of his book. Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator acts as a personal confession on how the current media system is setup so people like him can intentionally, and maliciously deceive the public for personal gain.

In short, he argues that internet news is setup to spread misinformation at its foundation. With a medium controlled by advertisers the amount of traffic an article gets...more

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Sep 15, 2012 Dave Burns rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audible

Holiday does not suggest any solution to the problems he describes. But unless things admit the possibility of improvement, complaining about them wastes my time. Perhaps he hopes that reading his book will inspire in readers a less tolerant attitude toward fake news. A cynic might claim that even sophisticated readers will welcome fake news, so long as it discomfits their enemies or validates their political views. Perhaps we all will need our own 15 minutes of infamy to help the message penet...more

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About Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday is media strategist for notorious clients like Tucker Max and Dov Charney. After dropping out of college at 19 to apprentice under the strategist Robert Greene, he went on to advise many bestselling authors and multi-platinum musicians. He is the Director of Marketing at American Apparel, where his work in advertising was internationally known. His strategies are used as case studies...more

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