I had higher hopes for this book, angry and funny (in a tragic way), that in many ways is covered better in other places.

For example, the human need to understand through story and narrative, often at the cost of truth and accuracy is examined better in The Republican Brain. Merchants of Doubt is the definitive work on climate change denialism and its roots in the tobacco campaign to discredit scientific research. The ramifications of the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, media ownership concentration, the conversion of news organizations into profit centers with the relaxing of broadcasters public service obligations, and the rise of conservative talk radio is also probably given better coverage elsewhere.

He does come up with some useful principles to help explain the state of the country. The merit of an idea is based on its popularity (books sold/tv and radio ratings), the louder an idea is shouted the more valid it is, and facts are determined by how many people believe it and how fervently they believe it.

It just feels like there is something missing here, lots of anecdotes and lots of background on cases such as Terry Schiavo and the Creationism Dover trial but then stops short of really getting to the underlying issues and problems. Without those pieces, it doesn't seem possible to come to solutions, which he doesn't attempt to outline. To me, this diminishes the value, yes, stupidity has been allowed to run rampant but what can we do about it? Without this, it is in danger of sinking into an angry rant rather than a thoughtful examination of where we we have gone wrong.