Like many other school librarians, we have lately been curating materials and lesson plans related to fake news and civil discourse.

OVERLOAD by Bob Schieffer (former host of CBS's Face the Nation) offers an important perspective from a well-respected journalist. Schieffer and his co-author, H. Andrew Schwartz, explore "Finding the Truth in Today's Deluge of News." They note the frequently cited statistic from Pew Research Center that 62% of American adults now get some news on social media. As one would expect, we have found that percentage to be even higher for our teenage students. OVERLOAD provides a nice bridge between generations; for example, introducing the reader to journalist at Mic (online site targeted at millennials), who say that "our phones are the only device that matters. And our phones went from being sort of social network connected devices for reading articles now to ... hyper-personalized TVs." They also cite the Buzzfeed study about how the top twenty false news stories of the election cycle had more likes, shares and clicks on social media than the top real news stories. While interspersing contributions from others like Walt Mossberg and Stephen Colbert, Schieffer notes "what we really need to do and what we are doing is rethinking the storytelling process in an environment where the web is its own medium and, in fact, mobile may be its own medium, too." Some reviewers considered his conclusions too obvious, but I think we do need a common language, better understanding of the range of outlets, and shared definition of what constitutes quality journalism - OVERLOAD provides a great starting point to begin those discussions. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and Booklist called it "a crucial tool for critical analysis."

Bob Schieffer is one of the most respected men in journalism. This book explores the overwhelming amount of fake news that is available to the public, and some that isn't. His special kind of expertise lends credit to the message of this book: it's too much to keep up with!

Fairness Is The Realistic Goal To Which All Of Us In Journalism Must Strive

In OVERLOAD, I was delighted to find that Bob Schieffer really does provide an independent look at the media and news events. It is such a nice change to read something that is NOT a partisan slam of one side or the other.

The author draws on his “Long Life in Journalism” to give us his take on what in the world is happening to news media. Bob gives an overview of the state of American media, and how it relates to politics, with special attention to the most recent presidential election. A large section is devoted to polls, and why they have turned out to be so wrong in recent years.

The author sees a major problem with both the quantity and quality of information; we are indeed “overloaded” with information. Many folks have trouble figuring out what is true and what is not: “Americans are so overwhelmed by information in the digital era they cannot process it.”

One interesting chapter provides a guide to the most popular news web sites. Bob calls this, “Journalism’s New Digital Wave: A Guide to Digitally Native News Websites.” For each site, there is a brief background on the organization, including how it got started, major figures, and the political leanings. I found this chapter insightful—I had no idea how these web sites got started, but Bob knows.

In “The Awful State Of American Politics,” the author notes that many bright people are repelled by the dirty business of politics: “We have allowed the path to public office to become such an unpleasant and revolting exercise that too many times our best and brightest want no part of it.”

Throughout the book, Mr. Shieffer points lots of interesting facts I didn’t know. I had no idea, for example, that cable news viewers are older: “The median viewer age for Fox is sixty-six, sixty-three for MSNBC, and sixty-one for CNN.”

The very last chapter of the book gives the author’s conclusions. Bob notes that he wanted to have the readers make up their own minds before giving his opinion. Some of his key points:
* Greater reliance on mobile phones makes polling less reliable;
* Fake news poses a growing and dangerous threat;
* Declining advertising revenue has put many local newspapers into desperate straits;
* Our electoral system is broken.

Bob encourages politicians to have courage and stand up for principle: “America needs more than political reform is political courage— candidates and politicians who are not afraid to risk losing the office they hold to accomplish the greater good.” The author also suggests a revamp of campaign spending, and a bipartisan effort to “end gerrymandering of congressional districts.”

The author provides an example of what is considers stellar journalism. He reprints the report by David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post, who “got the dreary assignment of investigating Donald J. Trump’s often cited charitable activities.” This account relates how Mr. Fahrenthold dug into all the claimed donations, to see if in fact they were genuine.

So all in all, I found OVERLOAD to be a solid, well-written book, in the spirit of non-partisan journalism. The author comes across as a decent person, without an axe to grind. I enjoyed reading Mr. Schieffer’s perspective on the state of journalism today, and the chapters that focus on prominent journalists and newspapers.

I thought this one sentence summed up the author’s hope for America:
“The greatest and most effective reform, however, will be to convince young people that holding elective office is an honorable and needed pursuit.”


Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher.

Overload by Bob Schieffer is an introspective look at the changing news landscape and its impacts on society and politics. The book really takes the reader through a bit of history of the news – the traditional newspaper through to today’s digital media landscape.
Through the book, there are interviews and comments from very recognizable names in news as well as the newcomers who have dramatically shaped the way that we consume information.
The premise is clear- we are overloaded with information. Or as we say at work- data rich and information poor. There is no shortage of words and articles and stories published on the web however we are no longer living in the world of aggregators. We consume stories one by one, from our favorite sites that speak to us and confirm our own biases, and don’t tend to venture out to the other side. The newspapers of old would try and aggregate all the data together, fact check and present daily; now it is hourly updates and the rush to get the latest info at the cost of accuracy.
There have been criticisms already posted online about the book and its unfair take on Donald Trump and his campaign/presidency. I say, congratulations for proving the point of the book. If you think that an author saying that Donald Trump is loose with the facts is biased, then you are living the exact echo chamber that is your biased source.
The authors have shown negatives and positives on both side of the 2016 campaign; but most importantly shown the impact that the media had on both campaigns. It has shown the rise of digital media outlets – include lists of reputable ones that lean in both directions.
And as a bonus, an in depth look at the wonderful reporting by David Fahrenthold regarding the Trump Foundation.
There are no alternative facts, there are alternative opinions and alternative viewpoints. Facts are facts; and sadly we as a society have lost the meaning of the word and the appreciation for people who report them.

"Overload" by famed CBS newsperson, Bob Scheiffer begins well, but eventually with the partisan pull of the times tilts to the very left in its conclusion

The work begins strong with Schieffer providing the best, to date, post election analysis that I have read, and I have read quite a few books looking for the same. Right from the start the author gets to it wonderfully, Hillary's inability to articulate, and to go beyond the damage that she and her campaign laid out, verses Trump's strength was speaking crudely and rudely as the "average joe/jane" do when speaking on the internet.

From this Mr. Schieffer provides a great analysis of where our news organizations have failed to adapt, but where they are doing so now. Whether it is via the Jeff Bezoz (amazon.com) Washington Post strength, or the changes that CBS news is coming to, podcasts, and other strategies where "news" is finding its ground anew.

Of course he delves into the "fake news" - that innuendo, fear based information that comes from sources on the far partisan levels of both sides, but is so encouraged by "bots" and more that this "fake news" which is more readily available to the iphone user than "real news" is helping to keep the partisan hatred alive and the true news out from the forefront.

Had the book ended here, I would have given it five stars, but instead I opted for two (and would have added a "half" if I had that option on Goodreads) is that in the final chapter Bob Schieffer does what he avoided in the rest of the book - he presents a "spin" on news as a prelude to an anti-Trump chapter that will no doubt delight one political side and upset the other, which is a shame because up until now he actually had a non-partisan work.

My example begins where we all know that Hillary Clinton and Team's emails were hacked. We know that wikileaks published actual emails of the same which included - anti-Roman Catholic statements by team members, cheating by others on behalf of the candidate (giving questions to otherwise unknown debate questions early) and more. This act happened, these revelations occurred. Yet about them the author writes "...political organizations are facing a strong increase in phony stories, similar to the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta." The author suggests that the latter Podesta and DNC reports were "fake news" when they were not.

The fact that a broadcaster whom I have great respect for could not walk away with a great work, but instead had to lean so partisan that he actually delivers false news himself takes away greatly from what could have been a non-partisan text to be enjoyed by all.

First, let me state that I have the utmost respect for Bob Schieffer, his work and his life. I feel that the country would be greatly benefited if someone like he were to return to giving the news. With that confession out of the way, and admitting that my opinion of his work may be skewed, let me review his latest book.
Overload is about the state of the media today. Of how we, as consumers of the news, are overwhelmed by the amount of information out there, and coming at us, nonstop every hour of the day. Of how, being overwhelmed and not able to process all the information, we tend to find news sources that agree with how we see the world. "Some folks get one set of facts from one outlet and other folks get another set of facts from another outlet, no wonder they come to different conclusions". How "Americans choose their favorite channel (or website) not to get just the latest information but to get the ammo to back up their previously formed opinion. And it's getting harder to separate opinion from fact".
Schieffer explains his theory on the reason Trump ultimately won, and why Clinton lost. (It has to do with the ability to utilize the media more effectively).
He covers the phenomenom of "fake news", and the problems of combatting it (A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put it's pants on). And the pattern it follows; eye-catching headline, interesting first paragraph, relevant photos (often taken off the internet), a few quotes (often not real people), and a format that looks like a typical news site.
The fall of the traditional media and the rise of the new media. And he gives examples throughout the book.
He covers conspiracy theories, and why people fall for them.
I loved the book. I only wish Schieffer could be given a bigger platform to share his ideas. We need it!

I love Mr. Schieffer, so this does not come easy: nothing given in this book is anything that hasn’t been said in a 200-word editorial or a 2000-word article or a 24-hour news cycle, trying to ‘make sense of it all.’

He won. Mainstream media lost, and it still hasn’t gotten over its sheer shock and disgust.

They still don’t understand what the people who voted for him saw in him.

And it continues to infuriate them that he doesn't care what they think.

For a hundred years, U.S. never met a military dictator it didn’t like, a genocide it didn’t brush aside and an invasion it didn’t justify, with the full support of the same label-heavy hate-mongering pat-on-the-back tunnel-vision big city gatekeepers, approving every ‘us vs. them’ metaphor out there before Bush made it vogue again. Patriotism never felt as good as when someone’s arse was on fire!

American media likes its presidents to appear soft harmless but decisive bunnies while okaying nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki! As long as someone sounds like a Reagan it doesn’t matter who gets the finger! As long as there is the ground-(color)-breaking Obama, who cares how many wars he starts or economies go bust! Trump is no different: he has played it to the gallery (not the Washington elite press though), buttered the usual lobbyists, fattened the usual arms, pharma and devil-may-care industries. But for the news media that Mr. Schieffer represents, who cares if the world burns, as long as the president gives you the feels! (which this one absolutely doesn’t, hence this vitriol of a book!)

America has made great social infrastructure and cultural landscape for its people in a 200-year history. For all the hot air talk on decent American values, media’s focus has never been on what could bring real lasting social change: universal health care, education and employment / growth opportunities for all, good gun laws, the eternal race and stereotype issue. They just want Trump gone!

Trump’s win isn’t hidden in the ‘rust belt’ , ‘margin of error’, ‘Hillary Clinton’s integrity issues', or 'fake news.’ It would have been better if Mr. Schieffer had gotten out of the cozy narcissistic liberal rich big city news belt and traveled to the inner sanctum of the voting-voters to ask them where the hell Washington is on the map: they would have told him they don’t care. At the end of the book, Mr. Schieffer remembers his 'last big story on Trump' that started with how, in 1996, Trump stole and sat on chair reserved for someone else at a children-with-AIDS charity event. All that that reveals to me is how clueless, out of it, and obsessive-compulsive the media really was in the days leading up to Nov.8th.

The book just organizes opinions of colleagues whose work he likes, and praises the work of NYT, WP etc. That’s like being in a well and sharing how good all the frogs look in there. As he says at the end, 'Since Election Day, Slate writers and executives have continued talking with historians, psychiatrists and other experts to explain who Trump is and what is happening in American politics today' (!)

Good news, sir, George Clooney has found wings. Unicorn at your service!