The Top Ten Liars

I made this list quickly and honestly. These are the biggest disseminators of bullshit about "exceptional" America (and its discontents). Most are bestselling writers (alive and dead) -- though Steven Spielberg stands for decades of Hollywood propaganda about the "greatness" of our leaders and how (with swelling music) the arc of history bends inevitably toward justice blah, blah blah. All lies.

These hacks are often beloved by liberals and progressives. They gather plaudits in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times -- proof of their conventional (establishment) "wisdom" and mendacity. (Ken Auletta stands for all the limited hangout, half truths and pabulum about corporate media.)

What happened to the angry truth-tellers of yesteryear? The searing prophets like Gore Vidal, William Appleman Williams , Gabriel Kolko, C. Wright Mills, Frantz Fanon, etc. Noam Chomsky is still around and mostly, unnervingly right. But they are blacklisted from the mainstream media in our "free" country, so all most Americans see and hear are the following prevaricators. God help us all.

Top Ten Liars (in no special order):

1. Ken Burns

2. Walter Isaacson

3. Doris Kearns Goodwin

4. Michael Beschloss

5. Jon Meacham

6. Christopher Hitchens

7. Joan Didion

8. Robert Caro

9. Steven Spielberg

10. Ken Auletta