Books

Beyond the Big Lie

The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy

Available now!

“Bill Adair was there at the beginning of the fact-checking movement. His decades in journalism make this an indispensable read for anyone who wants to understand why lying matters. Bill is one of my heroes. This blurb is ‘Mostly True.’”

— Al Franken, former U.S. Senator

“In this new and valuable book, the man who all but single-handedly revived the fact-checking movement, Bill Adair, offers reflections only he could, providing fresh accounts of how and why politicians lie, revealing the efforts to discredit journalists and researchers, and offering ideas to improve fact-checking to reduce lying. And he makes it readable as hell.”

- Tom Rosenstiel, co-author of The Elements of Journalism

“Beyond the Big Lie has it all. Bill Adair's book is timely, engaging and important, especially in America's fraught political environment. Democracy depends on truth, but truth-telling is in ever shorter supply, especially on the right. Bill Adair, with his long and storied record as an analyst of political lies, unearths the causes and looks ahead to the dire results of this freedom-killing epidemic.”

- Margaret Sullivan, executive director of the Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University and former public editor of The New York Times

“Bill Adair's autopsy of America's slide into post-truth absurdity is informed, urgent, and alarming.”

—Brian Stelter, New York Times Bestselling author of Hoax and Network of Lies

“Bill Adair is among the few contemporary journalists whose work has changed our business. With humility and boldness, Beyond the Big Lie describes how behavior as ancient as human beings has grown so dangerous in 21st century politics. And it holds out hope that good-faith media might yet temper the dishonesty that's especially pervasive within the modern Republican Party.”

- John Harwood, former CNN White House Correspondent

The Mystery of Flight 427: Inside a Crash Investigation

“Bill Adair has done it right.”

— USA Today

“A compelling mystery in a book of first-rate journalism.”

— Publishers Weekly

“Adair’s patient and sharp reporting has given birth to one of the best books in a highly sensitive category, flight safety.”

—Aviation Week & Space Technology