Phony Biographies

Lying and Deception in Print

Stan B. Walters

Phony Biographies? Really? In the last couple of weeks, we’ve learned again that publishers are not very discriminating about who they publish.  More importantly,  they are absolutely worthless in spotting deception.  Yet, they are the first to tell us how we everyone else is wrong and misinformed.

It’s happened again!  After three years of working with her, Penguin books has learned that Love and Consequences which is about the gang life of Margaret Seltzer (writing as Margaret B. Jones) is a complete fraud.  Seltzer still tries to salvage the charade by saying her work is based on the life experiences of several friends. 

Another of several phony biographies showed up just a few weeks ago “Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years” by Misha Defonseca turned out to be a fake.   Two years ago Ms. Oprah got burned by the fraudulent book “A Million Pieces” written by James Frey.

I thought publishers, newspaper and journalists had a code of conduct.  One of which is to verify all sources.   Makes you wonder what else they publish that is untrue.  Funny how the rest of us poor readers in the public are just dupes and have to been told what to think by the enlightened media.

Time they should learn how to spot deception.

Stan
“The Lie Guy”
[email protected]
Spotting Signs of Deception: On-Line Course
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