Norman Solomon's latest book, The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media: Decoding Spin and Lies in Mainstream News, is available from booksellers or directly from Common Courage Press (1-800-497-3207 or email: orders-info@commoncouragepress.com).

His book Wizards of Media Oz: Behind the Curtain of Mainstream News (co-authored with Jeff Cohen), was published in summer 1997. A review in The Nation magazine said: "One of the great values of this book is that it demolishes the myth that liberalism dominates the media.... This nifty, easily digestible compendium ought to be used in high school and college courses to help the young learn how to be discriminating news consumers. At a time when the syndicated rantings of ultra-right media critics...are widely available, Wizards of Media Oz provides a bracing antidote. Skilled puncturers of the conventional wisdom, Solomon and Cohen continue to provide us with (as Studs Terkel puts it in his introduction to the book) 'all the news that the Respectables find unfit to print.'"

Solomon is co-author of the widely praised book Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media (published in 1990). A review in the Washington Post Book World concluded that Unreliable Sources "makes a worthy addition to the library of any student of American news media, social structure and political science." Kirkus Reviews said that the book provides "an extensive record of recent media distortions." Publishers Weekly said that Solomon and co-author Martin A. Lee "make a compelling case for the contention that newsmen and women distort current events." The San Francisco Chronicle reviewer wrote: "Their command of information is matched by committed, eloquent writing that plumbs the psychological and political complexities of mass-mediated experience." Utne Reader called the book "an essential text." USA Today columnist Barbara Reynolds called it "a thinking person's book," adding that "you can see why media moguls aren't happy about the Solomon and Lee book."

An associate of the media watch group FAIR, Solomon is a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics. His column appears in the Arizona Republic, the Atlanta Constitution, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and other daily newspapers. He has written op-ed articles for many papers including the Washington Post, Newsday, New York Times, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, St. Louis Post- Dispatch, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun. His articles have also appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Canada's Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.

Solomon's book The Power of Babble: The Politician's Dictionary of Buzzwords and Doubletalk for Every Occasion -- a caustic examination of American politicians and their rhetoric -- was published by Dell in 1992. The National Council of Teachers of English nominated The Power of Babble for its 1992 George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. The book was cited as "essential reading for any citizen who wants to understand what those in power are really saying, and what they're not saying."

A review in The Nation called The Power of Babble "lively and valuable." The Chicago Tribune Magazine declared: "It's handy to have a guide to the empty rhetoric and rousing oratory coming out of the smoke-filled rooms. Norman Solomon provides it in The Power of Babble." The book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, Patricia Holt, wrote that "few books could better equip readers with tools to judge 'politician-speak' than the nifty guide to 'visionary hot air,' The Power of Babble."

In 1982, Solomon co-authored Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America's Experience With Atomic Radiation (Delacorte Press and Delta Books). Publishers Weekly termed the book "a well-documented and damning indictment of decades of irresponsible 'experts.'" Reviewing Killing Our Own and The Fate of the Earth together in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Alden Whitman wrote: "Both books contain strong appeals for common sense... They are STRONG stuff." Columnist Jack Anderson's comments went on the book's first page: "This invaluable addition to the literature of the Atomic Age helps lift the veil of secrecy surrounding another great cover-up. What's revealed is both frightening and devastating." A Japanese-language edition of Killing Our Own was printed by Hayakawa Publishers in Tokyo.

Norman Solomon has appeared on many TV and radio programs including ABC-TV's "Good Morning America," CNN Television's "Crossfire," C-SPAN, and NPR's "All Things Considered" and "Talk of the Nation." He is currently senior adviser to the international radio program "Making Contact."

Solomon's book False Hope: The Politics of Illusion in the Clinton Era was published in early 1994. His book Adventures in Medialand co-authored with Jeff Cohen, was published in 1993. Their follow-up book, Through the Media Looking Glass: Decoding Bias and Blather in the News, was published in summer 1995.

Through the Media Looking Glass has won widespread praise. A review in the Los Angeles Times declared: "The bold, muckraking tone of these columns offers a welcome respite from the decerebrated discourse that too often passes for contemporary journalism." The American Library Association's Booklist called the book "a lively counterpoint to the dominant conservative critique of the 'liberal' media."

Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a new nationwide consortium of public-policy experts scrutinizing media releases from major think tanks.

An archive of Solomon's works can be found at www.freepress.org/Backup/UnixBackup/pubhtml/solomon.

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