THE MERCHANTS OF TRUTH The Business of News and the Fight for Facts

The talented January LaVoy narrates the timely story of the digital disruption of media. LaVoy's crisply paced narration works well. A longtime journalist/editor who briefly served as the NEW YORK TIMES executive editor, Abramson has written an insider's account of how the digital revolution has changed the nature of journalism, with "digital first" having become its modus operandi. The author may have fudged her sources, but the broad outlines and origin stories of her four media empires--the NYT, the WASHINGTON POST, BUZZFEED, and VICE--reveal a moment when the business models of the distant and recent past are being overhauled. This audiobook, it needs to be said, aroused controversy. The author stands accused of sourcing errors, plagiarism, and bad faith. While the audiobook remains worth listening to, future listeners may want to investigate whether a corrected edition has been published. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2019]