Bernard Keane
Lies and Falsehoods:
The Morrison Government and the New Culture of Deceit
Hardie Grant Books, 2021
Lies and Falsehoods: The Morrison Government and The New Culture of Deceit by well-known political journalist Bernard Keane combines Crikey's eye-opening dossier of Scott Morrison's documented lies with Keane's insightful take on why deceivers dominate in the new era of politics. This book is the first in The Crikey Read series by Crikey and Hardie Grant Books.
All politicians lie. They twist the truth, exaggerate and spin. But blatant lying has now become a standard part of political discourse, led by Donald Trump and carried on by Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison. Combine this with an all-out assault on the truth in public debate along with the biggest communications revolution since the printing press, and you have a disaster in real time: a sea of fake news, hyper-partisanship and polarisation.
No society or democracy can function without trust, and the consequences of this profound shift are clear. The first step to a remedy is in understanding both the liars and the environments in which they lie. Lies and Falsehoods does exactly that, in this highly readable and incisive account of how we found ourselves in this fractured post-truth world, and how we might get out.
From Crikey and Hardie Grant Books, The Crikey Read is a series that brings an unflinching and truly independent eye to the issues of the day in Australia and the world.
About the Author
Bernard Keane has been Crikey's correspondent in Canberra since 2008, writing on politics, media and economics. He was educated at the University of Sydney, where he studied history. Before joining Crikey he was a public servant and speechwriter in transport and communications. He is the author of the ebook War On The Internet and co-author of the bestseller A Short History of Stupid, with Helen Razer. He is also the author of Surveillance, his first novel.
