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Summary
Summary
This book digs deep to unearth the ugly facts that few reporters working anywhere in the world today cover. From East Timor to Waco, Karachi to Santiago, it exposes some of the most egregious cases of political corruption, corporate fraud, and financial manipulation, globally.This collection brings together some of Greg Palast's most powerful and influential writing of the past decade. His columns in the Observer have a cult following and he made headline news when he went undercover to break open the 'Lobbygate' scandal of corruption inside the Blair Cabinet.Included here are his reports on that story, as well as his Washington Post exposé on Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris's stealing of the presidential election in Florida and recent stories on George W. Bush's pay-offs to corporate cronies. Also included in this volume are new and previously unpublished material, television transcripts, photographs, and letters.
Author Notes
Greg Palast's undercover reports and his "Inside Corporate America" column in the Observer have won him Britain's top prizes for investigative and business journalism as well as the Financial Times David Thomas Prize.
Salon.com chose his scandal-busting report on the presidential race in Florida "Political Story of the Year" and his writings have appeared in the Washington Post, Harper's and The Nation.
Greg Palast divides his time between New York and London.
Reviews (1)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Muckraking has a long, storied tradition, and Palast is evidently proud to be part of it. In this polemical indictment of globalization and political corruption, Palast (a reporter with the BBC and London's Observer) updates the muckraking tradition with some 21st-century targets: the IMF, World Bank and WTO, plus oil treaties, energy concerns and corporate evildoers of all creeds. Some of Palast's reports are downright shocking (if familiar). He shows, for example, how the WTO prevents cheap AIDS drugs from reaching victims in Africa and how World Bank loan policies have crippled the economies of Tanzania and other developing countries. On the home front, he details Exxon's horrific safety record before the Valdez disaster and reveals the price-gouging by Texas power companies during the California energy crisis. In Britain, Palast exposes the "cash for access" policies of the Blair administration, and blasts the legal system for shielding Pfizer Pharmaceuticals from lawsuits by victims who had defective Pfizer valves installed in their hearts. These are all good, important stories. Most of them, however, have been published before. This book is essentially a collection of Palast's newspaper articles, hastily stitched together with some commentary and exposition. As such, it lacks cohesiveness and the depth his subjects deserve. In addition, Palast's bombastic style and one-sided perspective do much to undermine his own credibility. How seriously should readers take a journalist who labels former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers an "alien" and dismisses Wal-Mart shareholders as "Wal-Martians"? There is much of value here, but readers who want a full-bodied, serious analysis of how globalization is affecting developing countries or how corporate giants pay for political favors should look elsewhere. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Table of Contents
Who Gives a Shit? An Introduction to the New American Edition | p. 1 |
Chapter 1. Jim Crow in Cyberspace: The Unreported Story of How They Fixed the Vote in Florida | p. 11 |
Chapter 2. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Bushes and the Billionaires Who Love Them | p. 83 |
Chapter 3. California Reamin': Deregulation and the Power Pirates | p. 117 |
Chapter 4. Sell the Lexus, Burn the Olive Tree: Globalization and Its Discontents | p. 143 |
Chapter 5. Inside Corporate America | p. 207 |
Chapter 6. Pat Robertson, General Pinochet, Pepsi-Cola and the Anti-Christ: Special Investigative Reports | p. 237 |
Chapter 7. Small Towns, Small Minds | p. 297 |
Chapter 8. Kissing the Whip: Reflections of an American in Exile | p. 311 |
Appendix Your Turn-Resources for Action | p. 343 |
Acknowledgments | p. 349 |
Index | p. 353 |
About the Author | p. 369 |
About the Illustrator | p. 371 |