من تصميم David Enrich
New York Times Bestseller
""Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America." — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen
David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
It was a quiet way to announce a revolution: In an obscure 2019 case that the Supreme Court refused to even hear, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of overturning the legendary New York Times v. Sullivan decision. Though hardly a household name, Sullivan is one of the most consequential free speech decisions, ever. Fundamental to the creation of the modern media as we know it, it has enabled journalists and writers all over the country—from top national publications to revered local newspapers to independent bloggers—to pursue the truth aggressively and hold the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to account.
Thomas's words were a warning—the public awakening of an idea that had been fomenting on the conservative fringe for years. Now it is going mainstream. From the Florida statehouse to small town New Hampshire to Donald Trump's White House, this movement today consists of some of the world's richest and most powerful people and companies, who believe they should be above scrutiny and want to silence or delegitimize voices that challenge their supremacy. Indeed, many of the same businessmen, politicians, lawyers, and activists are already weaponizing the legal system to intimidate and punish journalists and others who dare criticize them.
In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of this growing threat to our modern democracy. With Trump's emboldened right-wing coalition committed to demonizing and punishing those who attempt to hold them accountable, Murder the Truth sounds the alarm about the looming war over facts, laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights. The result is a story about power in the age of Trump—the way it's used by those who have it and the lengths to which they will go to avoid it being questioned.
New York Times Bestseller
""Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America." — Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen
David Enrich, the New York Times Business Investigations Editor and the #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers, produces his most consequential and far-reaching investigation yet: an in-depth exposé of the broad campaign—orchestrated by elite Americans—to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
It was a quiet way to announce a revolution: In an obscure 2019 case that the Supreme Court refused to even hear, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the prospect of overturning the legendary New York Times v. Sullivan decision. Though hardly a household name, Sullivan is one of the most consequential free speech decisions, ever. Fundamental to the creation of the modern media as we know it, it has enabled journalists and writers all over the country—from top national publications to revered local newspapers to independent bloggers—to pursue the truth aggressively and hold the wealthy, powerful, and corrupt to account.
Thomas's words were a warning—the public awakening of an idea that had been fomenting on the conservative fringe for years. Now it is going mainstream. From the Florida statehouse to small town New Hampshire to Donald Trump's White House, this movement today consists of some of the world's richest and most powerful people and companies, who believe they should be above scrutiny and want to silence or delegitimize voices that challenge their supremacy. Indeed, many of the same businessmen, politicians, lawyers, and activists are already weaponizing the legal system to intimidate and punish journalists and others who dare criticize them.
In this masterwork of investigative reporting, David Enrich, New York Times Business Investigations Editor, traces the roots and reach of this growing threat to our modern democracy. With Trump's emboldened right-wing coalition committed to demonizing and punishing those who attempt to hold them accountable, Murder the Truth sounds the alarm about the looming war over facts, laying bare the stakes of losing our most sacrosanct rights. The result is a story about power in the age of Trump—the way it's used by those who have it and the lengths to which they will go to avoid it being questioned.
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Starred review from January 6, 2025
New York Times editor Enrich (Servants of the Damned) offers a chilling deep dive into “a largely under-the-radar legal movement that is weaponizing obscure field of libel law.” Ever since the Supreme Court’s unanimous 1964 decision in New York Times Company v. Sullivan, plaintiffs classified as public figures have been required to prove that individuals or entities they sue for libel acted with “knowledge that was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” The impact of that ruling, Enrich explains, was to allow journalists to “investigate and write about those in the public sphere, even if they accidentally got a fact wrong.” But in recent years Sullivan has come under attack as libel suits have been brought, or threatened, against newspapers, both local and national, in a concerted right-wing effort to give a conservative Supreme Court an opportunity to overrule Sullivan, according to Enrich. He profiles those caught up in the lawsuits, including Colorado journalist Conrad Swanson, whose investigation into public safety concerns about a new residential development were stymied when his newspaper was threatened with a libel action, as well as those pursuing Sullivan’s demise—like billionaire Peter Thiel, who covertly financed a libel lawsuit against Gawker that led to the website’s shuttering, and the growing “clique of high-powered lawyers who... specialize in attacking journalists” on behalf of the powerful. It’s an unsettling look at a dire threat to democracy.
