DIRECTOR, JEN SENKO'S MUST-READS!

1 “The Republican Noise Machine” by David Brock

In The Republican Noise Machine, David Brock skillfully documents perhaps the most important but least understood political development of the last thirty years: how the Republican Right has won political power and hijacked public discourse in the United States.

2. "Wrapped in the Flag" by Claire Conner

Wrapped in the Flag chronicles the radical right wing world of the 1960s when conspiracy ruled and the John Birch Society made national headlines. The daughter of a John Birch Society leader, Claire introduces us to the extreme ideas of a powerful political fringe group dispensing radical solutions to America’s problems.

3. "Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda" by Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky’s backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy—one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled.

6. "Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control" by Kathleen Taylor

The term 'brainwashing' was first recorded in 1950, but it is an expression of a much older concept: the forcible and full-scale alteration of a person's beliefs. Over the past 50 years the term has crept into popular culture, served as a topic for jokes, frightened the public in media headlines, and slandered innumerable people and institutions. It has also been the subject of learned discussion from many angles: history, sociology, psychology, psychotherapy, and marketing. Despite this variety, to date there has been one angle missing: any serious reference to real brains.

7. "The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Terror" by FAIR"

The Way Things Aren’t documents and corrects over 100 whoppers told by The Lyin’ King, pitting Limbaugh versus Reality in areas ranging from American history to the environment, health care to rock and roll. It also has features such as “Limbaugh versus Limbaugh” with examples of Limbaugh contradicting himself, cartoons by Garry Trudeau and Tom Tomorrow, seven things you can do about Rush Limbaugh, a postcard to mail to the talk show host about his Limbecile statements, and a foreword to Limbaughland by Molly Ivins that is as scary as it is funny.

8. "Confessions of a Former Dittohead" by Jim Derych

Confessions of a Former Dittohead is the true story of how one average American turned away from the lies and distortions of Rush Limbaugh and the Republican Party to become a Liberal Democrat. Originally a diary on the popular website Daily Kos, this amazing book follows red-stater Jim Derych on a personal journey from the heart of conservative darkness to the light of liberalism, as he shares his observations and techniques with a progressive audience in the hopes of winning the battle over what George Lakoff describes as “framing.”

9. "The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network Into a Propoganda Machine" by David Brock, Ari Rabin-Havt and Media Matters

The Fox Effect follows the career of Ailes from his early work as a television producer and media consultant for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. Consequently, when he was hired in 1996 as the president of Rupert Murdoch’s flagship conservative cable news network, Ailes had little journalism experience, but brought to the job the mindset of a political operative. As Brock and Rabin-Havt demonstrate through numerous examples, Ailes used his extraordinary power and influence to spread a partisan political agenda that is at odds with long-established, widely held standards of fairness and objectivity in news reporting.

10. "Toxic Talk: How the Radical Right Has Poisoned America's Airwaves" by Bill Press

A timely cannon blast at the right-wing media machine and how it subverts the principles of democratic representation.

11. "State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind" by Dr. Bryant Welch

Why are Americans so vulnerable to divisive political tactics? Why did Americans get dragged into such an unwise war in Iraq? Why do fundamentalist religious groups, Fox News, and right-wing radio still play such influential roles in America’s political landscape? And why are long-accepted rational scientific ideas like evolution under siege? These questions hold America’s future in the balance. Ultimately, they are questions about the American mind. Psychologist-attorney Dr. Bryant Welch has the answers.

12. "Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America" by Rick Perlstein

Told with urgency and sharp political insight, Nixonland recaptures America's turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and reveals how Richard Nixon rose from the political grave to seize and hold the presidency.

13. "Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment" by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Joseph B. Cappella

Rupert Murdoch's recent multibillion-dollar purchase of the Wall Street Journal made international news. Yet it is but one more chapter in an untold story: the rise of an integrated conservative media machine that all began with Rush Limbaugh in the 1980s.

14. "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movement" by Eric Hoffer

The famous bestseller with “concise insight into what drives the mind of the fanatic and the dynamics of a mass movement” (Wall St. Journal) by Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Eric Hoffer, The True Believer is a landmark in the field of social psychology, and even more relevant today than ever before in history. Called a “brilliant and original inquiry” and “a genuine contribution to our social thought” by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The True Believer is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the machinations by which an individual becomes a fanatic.

15. "Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise" by Andrew Rich

Think tanks are nonprofit policy research organizations that provide analysis and expertise to influence policymakers. From the 1970s their number exploded in the U.S. and their proliferation represented a hope that lawmaking might become better informed and more effective as a result of these expert contributions. Instead, as this book documents, the known ideologies of many, especially the newer, think tanks currently contribute to an environment in which they differ little from advocacy organizations, promoting points of view and preordained policy prescriptions. As a result, they fail to achieve desired influence and undermine their credibility.

16. "Combating Cult Mind Control" by Steven Hassan, America's Best-Known Cult Expert

Hassan describes the identifying factors of being in a cult and then offers help to people who want to help others emerge from 'thought reform' and mind control.

17. "Lies, Incorporated: The World of Post-Truth Politics" by Ari Rabin-Havt and Media Matters

In today’s post-truth political landscape, there is a carefully concealed but ever-growing industry of organized misinformation that exits to create and disseminate lies in the service of political agendas. It has crippled legislative progress on issues including tobacco regulation, public heal care, climate change, gun control etc. Lies, Incorporated takes an unflinching look at the the powerful network of politicians and special interest groups that have launched coordinated assaults on the truth to shape American politics.