Review: Debunked!

Debunked!

Richard Roeper

I thought this book was hysterical. And if you think the world is, in general, suffering from an overdose of hysteria, then you'll love it, too. Roeper sets out in this book to debunk many of the so-called "truths" of our time, and he has fun while doing it. Along the way he addresses Katrina news-reporting gone wild, conspiracy theorists who spin elaborate stories of what really happened on September 11th, 2001, and why Christmas won't disappear any time soon. I did wish at times that the pieces were longer - Roeper writes newspaper articles and this book is chock-full of article-length pieces - and I also wished that he would cite sources both where he uncovered what he was debunking and the evidence used in the debunkery. (I know it isn't a word.) It's a fast read, along the lines of an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, only less eclectic and random. Roeper has a way of turning a phrase, but he never is mean-spirited in the presentation of his urban media legends and his rebuttals.

If it seems to you sometimes that the media - indeed, the world - is becoming just a little too bizarre, this is the kind of book that helps you steer back to an even keel.

Get it:

Debunked!