by Ashley Kuehl, executive editor, YA trade nonfiction
Fake news, misinformation, lies, hoaxes, spin, disinformation, and falsehoods. What do these terms have in common? You’ll learn about all of them (and more!) in the newly updated Fake News Edition of Debunk It! How to Stay Sane in a World of Misinformation, available now from Zest Books.
A taste of what’s new:
On December 4, 2016, a North Carolina man called Edgar Maddison Welch entered a Washington, DC, pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong, brandishing a military-style rifle. He fired three shots, but luckily none of them hit anyone, and he was arrested without a struggle.
Welch had gone there because of fake news. He’d read online that senior officials of the Democratic Party, including Hillary Clinton, were running a child prostitution ring out of the pizzeria’s basement. Welch believed he was a potential hero who’d come to the restaurant to rescue the kids from their exploiters. Even after his arrest, he refused to believe he could have been misled by a conspiracy theory–that he was a victim of fake news.
Debunk It! Fake News Edition, by John Grant (page 261)
Author John Grant has thoroughly revised the text and added a fantastic new chapter on fake news. Think Salem witch trials, war propaganda, ideological spin, and a lot of background on political “fake news” and scandals of recent years.
Your favorite chapters are still there too, updated for these modern times. Explore different types of rhetorical tricks, conspiracies, truth, and fiction with respect to climate change, medical treatments, archaeology, history, vaccinations, and more, written in a witty, occasionally hilarious tone perfect for a young adult audience.
—