Untruth: Why the Conventional Wisdom Is (Almost Always) Wrong [Paperback]

In Untruth, Newsweek and Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson explains why our political, economic and cultural debates so routinely traffic in misinformation--popular fads that, like meteors, momentarily burn brightly in public consciousness and then fizzle out. Advocacy groups, politicians and their unwitting allies in the media instinctively create agendas of problems that afflict society and must be "solved".The problems are often exaggerated and oversimplified, and the result is that the public is misled about what is wrong and how easily it can be made right.

Untruth is the first collection of Samuelson's insightful assaults on the conventional wisdom. Included are columns arguing that campaign contributions have not corrupted politics, that the "service economy" is not turning America into a nation of hamburger flippers, and that the Internet isn't the most important invention since the printing press.

In addition to Newsweek and the Washington Post, Robert J. Samuelson's columns are syndicated to about 40 U.S. and 20 foreign papers by The Washington Post Writers Group. He is the author of The Good Life and Its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement, 1945-1995. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife, Judy Herr, and their three children, Ruth, Michael and John.THE STEADFAST (AND OFTEN SILLY) AMERICAN CHARACTER

Every so often an item bounces across the Associated Press wire that reminds you how steadfast the American national character is. Here’s one (suitably abbreviated) that arrived a few weeks ago:

ROCHESTER, N.H.—An 88-year-old woman made good on her pledge not to pay “one red cent” of a court judgmentl3%