Book review: The Invisible Persuaders - How Britain's Spin Doctors Manipulate the Media

Michie, David (1998) The Invisible Persuaders - How Britain's Spin Doctors Manipulate the Media Transworld Publishers, Sydney ISBN 0593042387 Reviewed by Richard Stanton It is self evident truth that metropolitan newspapers are no longer primarily journals of record. It is impossible to travel to most western countries, notably the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and, in the context of this review, South Africa, and pick up on the day's I main political, social or economic events simply by reading the three front pages of a morning or evening broadsheet. Once upon a time this was the most useful stick with which to gain a measure of direction, a sense of what that country might be moving towards, or away from. No longer sadly, is this neat trick possible to execute in the western world.