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Encountering American Pravda: Essays in a Historical Counter-Narrative
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War of the early 2000s, it became increasingly obvious that our mainstream newspapers and magazines provided a severely flawed narrative of events.
This disturbing reality was underscored a few years later by the astonishing revelations of Pulitzer Prize winner Sydney Schanberg, one of America's most esteemed Vietnam War journalists and a former top editor at the New York Times . He had spent years compiling a mountain of compelling evidence implicating our national leaders in a monumental act of wartime treachery, with Sen. John McCain playing a central figure in covering up that scandal. Yet although this shocking material was released at the height of McCain's 2008 presidential run, it was entirely ignored by virtually all of our media outlets, liberal and conservative alike.
If a story so important and so well-documented by such a writer could be disregarded by all our journalists, then our mainstream media merely constituted an American Pravda, just as distorted and dishonest as the notorious Soviet propaganda organ of that name.
Schanberg's passing in 2016 inspired the creation of the American Pravda series, which now includes many dozens of essays, together constituting a historical counter-narrative of the last one hundred years.
This collection contains most of the earliest American Pravda articles, and serves as an introduction to the entire lengthy series.
This disturbing reality was underscored a few years later by the astonishing revelations of Pulitzer Prize winner Sydney Schanberg, one of America's most esteemed Vietnam War journalists and a former top editor at the New York Times . He had spent years compiling a mountain of compelling evidence implicating our national leaders in a monumental act of wartime treachery, with Sen. John McCain playing a central figure in covering up that scandal. Yet although this shocking material was released at the height of McCain's 2008 presidential run, it was entirely ignored by virtually all of our media outlets, liberal and conservative alike.
If a story so important and so well-documented by such a writer could be disregarded by all our journalists, then our mainstream media merely constituted an American Pravda, just as distorted and dishonest as the notorious Soviet propaganda organ of that name.
Schanberg's passing in 2016 inspired the creation of the American Pravda series, which now includes many dozens of essays, together constituting a historical counter-narrative of the last one hundred years.
This collection contains most of the earliest American Pravda articles, and serves as an introduction to the entire lengthy series.
166 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2022
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September 23, 2025
My nonfiction ratings hinge on two things: how much a book updates my priors and how much new insight it gives me. This brief, collection of essays has probably changed my worldview more than any other book I’ve read.
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