Notes on Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday

Two friends of mine almost simultaneously recommended the new book Trust me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday to me, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. It turns out that the book focuses on the modern media and journalism landscape and how it can be effortlessly manipulated by individuals and companies to put out fake news or further their interests. The author is a very well-connected journalist and social media expert who has worked in marketing at a number of companies, including American Apparel, and he has written his book to confess his own media manipulation "sins" to expose the broken system to the world and cry for change.

I had heard about how various news aggregators and blogs can be manipulated, and how there is a lot of spam out there that aims to manipulate various advertising markets (for arbitrage), mostly through SEO techniques. But I always thought that the "credible" news sources were still more or less trustworthy; this book totally debunks that idea.

I enjoyed the tidbits of journalism history thrown in, as well as all the quotes from other authors and journalists. I felt like the book rambled a bit with SO many examples of blatant manipulation, but that did serve its purpose, I guess.

The biggest surprise for me was how easily fake news and fake controversy can be implanted in a blog, then "traded up the chain" to larger blogs and then eventually the national news sources, and then have such devastating effects on REAL LIFE that the fake becomes real. That's definitely scary.

This is obviously one author's viewpoint. I'm curious to hear what others have to say (and I'm scared for the author's life...).

Intro

• Media manipulator
  
• Lies to media to get them to lie to you
  
• News is driven and created by marketers
  
• Create ads and then create fake protests against them to make controversy, drama, and attention
  
• Tucker Max
  
• American apparel
  
• Not knowing what's real anymore
  
• Media manipulation as monster to be fed
  
• Nine tactics
  

Book 1: feeding the monster: how blogs work

• Blogs create memes and news
  
• Political blogs like Politico
  
• Change reality through news
  
• Fake political candidate generates page views and revenue
  
• Traffic more important than truth
  

Ch 2 how to turn nothing into something in 3 steps

• Ppl including reporters just do what's easiest
  
• Trading up the chain: place content on small blog with no standards then that becomes base for article at bigger blog and so on
  
• Ex: YouTube video, post on blog that huffpo likes, then make kick starter and put on reddit where have connections
  
• Email reporters from fake address
  
• Content trickles up
  
• Bloggers and reporters must write daily and scour web for content
  
• Twitter used for online research by reporters (ridiculous)
  
• Lack of fact checking
  
• Level 1: the entry point
  
• Local issues
  
• Expert sites
  
• Small and understaffed
  
• Level 2: legacy media
  
• Local media, smaller counterparts of big media sites
  
• Smartmoney
  
• Worse editorial standards
  
• Level 3: national press
  
• Sites who took your bait submit to larger ones themselves
  
• Get 3-4 small sites to write about some fake tip or event you seed yourself under fake name
  
• Then this can be basis of a trend piece
  
• Queue stories up on sites that larger media reporters read like gawker and mediabistro (specific sites mentioned throughout book)
  
• Create multiple fake addresses and send collection of links to reporters
  
• Find a lead steer for your campaign
  
• The rest just gallop in herd
  
• Every single person in system under pressure to publish
  

Ch 3 the blog con: how media companies make money online

• Economics of news sites contorts all stories
  
• Traffic is ads is money
  
• Scoops are traffic
  
• TMZ
  
• Pretend they have scoops
  
• Make money by stealing scoops
  
• Using names to build a name
  
• Blogs meant to be eventually sold
  

Ch 4 tactic 1: bloggers are poor, help bloggers pay their bills

• Covert bribe
  
• Compensation per post, speed not quality
  
• Plus bonuses on page views
  
• Twitter accounts will tweet for you for money
  
• Give free swag and perks to bloggers and offer affiliate commissions
  
• No conflicts ever disclosed
  
• Digital sweatshop
  

Ch 5 tactic 2; tell them what they want to hear

• Identities never verified
  
• Press releases copied word for word
  
• Wikipedia wording changes what reporters write
  
• HARO help a reporter out
  
• Manufactures fake credibility

Ch 6 tactic 3: give them what spreads, not what's good

• Top stories Polarize ppl
  
• Threaten 3 b: behavior, beliefs, belongings
  
• Provocative slide shows get more views and more expensive ads
  
• Shared more
  
• Most powerful predictor of what viral is how much anger it creates
  
• Humiliation should not be suppressed, it should be monetized
  

Ch 7 tactic 4; help them trick their readers

• Headlines with questions effective
  
• Put entire story in headline but leave out 1 detail to make ppl click
  
• Answer is of course no but question is juicy
  
• Useful articles aren't shared
  
• Being fair or reasonable stops trolls from commenting (bad)
  
• Leaving comments requires registration and flow shows more ads and pages
  

Ch 8 tactic 5: sell them something they can sell, one off effect

• Newspapers get attention however they can
  
• Fakes and embellishments
  
• Yellow journalism lessons and tactics apply
  
• Pay per subscription which worked best dead; now back to one off selling which works by sensationalism
  
• Blogs constantly chasing other readers instead of loyal ones whereas subscriptions were about trust
  
• Industry killed rss to deceive readers more easily
  

Ch 9 tactic 6: make it all about the headline

• Headline must be appalling and catchy to sell and win fight for attention like yellow press
  
• desperate fight
  
• Give them fake news, they'll write the headline
  
• Write the headline and let them steal it
  

Ch 10 tactic 7 kill them with page view kindness

• Unshared or unliked article is bad
  
• Care about seo terms and cpm it could generate
  
• Only focus on what can be measured not quality
  
• Afraid of silence
  
• Leave fake comments to make ur company appear political
  

Ch 11 tactic 8 use the tech against itself

• Hard for ppl to know what's new
  
• So now use stacks to do reverse chronological order on homepage
  
• Publish short posts quickly because will sink off front page quickly
  
• 800 word limit
  
• Best 200 words max, 100 words even better
  

Ch 12 tactic 9 just make stuff up

• Bloggers will keep spreading fake news
  

Book 2 the monster attacks: what blogs mean

Ch 13 toxic blood

• Manipulation leads to lawsuits and money lost over fake news
  

Ch 14 manipulator hall of fame

• Ppl lost jobs over fake news
  

Ch 15 cupid evil: online tactics that drug u and me

• YouTube manipulates you
  
• Mass distraction
  
• Content optimized to get you to watch
  
• Thumbnail cheating with hot girl
  
• Genetically modified info
  
• Algorithmically created media
  
• Demand media optimizes seo and ad value
  

Ch 16 link economy, delusion of sourcing

• Trading up
  
• Companies dodging bullets
  
• No burden of proof
  
• Delegation of trust broken
  
• Link economy only confirms/supports and doesn't question or correct
  
• Fake wiki edit -> blog post -> news article -> wiki citation reference
  

Ch 17 extortion via the web

• Blackmail in viral videos
  
• Distracts companies
  
• Culture of fear
  
• Reputation mgmt service handles all these bs issues and counter manipulating
  
• Hundreds of millions of market value killed in a stock from fake blogs and leaks
  

Ch 18 online journalism bogus philosophy

• No one checks before spreading info
  
• Beta journalism: publish first then check
  
• Really bad
  
• Iterative journalism with no research
  
• Every correction is a new post and more traffic
  

Ch 19 myth of corrections

• Corrections online joke
  
• Cognitive dissonance
  
• No one consumes iteratively (no way to track back to users who've read something to give update)
  
• As soon as read it's fact
  
• Corrections amplify and support original even when refuted (psych study)
  

Ch 20 cheering on our own deception

• PR and blogs big deception self feeding
  
• Advertising is content
  
• Charts of popular video ads
  
• Bloggers at their conferences
  
• Ordinary pseudo event they pay to happen
  
• Coverage about coverage
  
• Email to blogger: here's an exclusive leak of our Upcoming video ad, and blogger immediately publishes
  

Ch 21 dark side of snark

• Make fun of lawsuits instead of serious discussion of fake claim
  
• Use snark to distract media
  
• Nothing you can do against it
  
• Snark about insecurity
  

Ch 22 21st century degradation ceremony

• Press is modern execution or punishment
  
• Tear up ppl after we build them up
  

Ch 23 welcome to unreality

• All news second hand opinions and rumors
  
• Fake and real can't be told apart
  
• Job of journalism to surprise joy instruct
  
• Normal parts of life hidden
  
• Tiny news funnel
  
• Trust blogs the more we use them
  
• Pseudo event: anything done just to get media
  
• Not real events, just staged
  
• Done to introduce info to media
  

Ch 24 how to read a blog

• Tipsters leaks reports all just stuff emailed in and not checked
  
• Sources not vetted
  
• Attributed quotes just stolen and not checked
  
• Exclusive not true
  
• What spreads and finds you is actually the worst stuff 
  

Conclusion

• Internet controls culture now
  
• All aspects of society suffer because of it
  
• Doesn't know how to fix it
  
• We are all feeding the monster

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