This book is all over the place, literally speaking. It contains much-needed critique of journalism, and lack thereof, but lacks editing; reading this book continuously made me feel as though it had not been edited at all.

The writer of this book may have high standing in the field of journalism, but it is often lacking in references, depth, and is somewhat conspiratorial overall. Pointing out faults is one thing, but pointing to "the truth" without scientific evidence is merely speculation, and defeats the purpose of a book that bears the word "truthteller" in its title.

Here's part of the dubious copy:

There is a daring rescue in the icy wastes of Antarctica. An Air Force Hercules flies in.The heroic midwinter flight — in total darkness and with a temperature low enough to freeze the plane’s oil and fuel within minutes — gets worldwide coverage. But who was rescued and why? Journalists begin asking questions. There is surprising level of secrecy and wild rumours: of nuclear accidents, of patients with burns. Sources give out information and then deny giving any. Officials provide contradictory details. Everyone acts like there is something to hide. But the truth remains elusive. The Antarctic is far away and impossible to get to without official permission. It is a territory controlled by no nation. Operations there, scientific and otherwise, are not well understood. Journalists cannot do the one thing that they would do on other stories closer to home: go to the scene and start asking questions. Even in the internet age, distance still counts.The story just goes away.

The bits about Richard Tomlinson, known "spy", verge towards hagiography:

The mystery of Richard Tomlinson will not go away. At the time I met him in Nice, he was under the watchful eye of French intelligence.

How do we know he was watched by French intelligence? Little niggling pieces like that are strewn throughout the book, which irritated me quite often.

The best and worst part about the book may be about the Estonia ship disaster, where close to a thousand persons died. Davis goes a long way to point to it being a complete cover-up, which he may be right about, but again, he's merely pointing wildly at indications.

I mean, I'd love to see some reliable sources for this paragraph:

Intelligence sources have confirmed that the Estonia was carrying crucial data — telemetry and components — from the Soviet space and missile programs. The divers hired by the Swedish government, whose work is still an official secret, searched cabins occupied by a Russian space technology dealer, Aleksandr Voronin, who owned a company in Tallinn and who, along with his brother in Moscow, was suspected of trading in weapons and technology. British intelligence was behind the smuggling operation, working with the Swedes. Intelligence sources say the Russians learnt of the smuggling operation and tried to stop it. One possible source of the tip-off to the Russians was a man called Herman Simm. Simm was a senior Estonian official. He was the country’s top police officer at the time of the sinking. Later he was part of the state secret protection department and one of the liaisons with NATO, where he handled classified information. In 1998, Simm was arrested and convicted as a Russian spy. He had been selling them NATO secrets for a decade.

The book ends with a positive paragraph, which is where I'll let this review rest:

We must start to treat information with the care it deserves, whether in our private lives or as citizens.We must take responsibility for the information we share. Do we really all want to be part of a long chain of people spreading lies around the globe? We can also teach our children to be intelligent consumers of information, to understand the difference between fact and opinion, to understand that gossip is just that, and to be prudent in what information they share on social media or in person. Let’s teach them to be less quick to come to an opinion, to ask more questions before making up their minds, and to realize that the complex problems of our planet can’t be explained in a tweet or YouTube clip.