Richard Roeper

Overall a decent book, but with some flaws that are maybe not serious. There are some editing errors, which lead to some odd phrases, usually a word left out. There is at least one truly confusing section, where he is talking about baseball conspiracy theories, where he says one thing in one place and something else later. The conspiracies he debunks are far from the most interesting, and those that are the most interesting in the book seem to be covered only briefly, in one case, just a single page front and back. He also lets his biases show in some places, such as in the section on Starbucks; that creates some damage to his credibility, and could run the risk of tainting other conspiracy theory debunkings with doubt. I recommend with reservations. It's an easy read, but probably not the best introduction to critical thinking.… (altro)

This book is a mixed bag. Most of the 45 chapters are pretty good but there were a few which didn't land well; e.g., The Fugitive, Touched by an Atheist, Bert and Ernie are Gay and Dead, Monica Puts Foot in Mouth, It's Not Easy Being a Green CD, Code Blue's Clues, and Women Speak in Estrogen.I happen to collect books about Los Angeles history (for the time being) so this is a decent read. Some of Roeper's chapters are unequal to some his other chapters, which were very good. The chapter which sticks out is the Hanoi Jane Fonda content. Roeper says that when Fonda went Hanoi, North Vietnam she met with some US military Prisoners of War she betrayed them and turned over sensitive info about their conditions as captive prisoners. This was true. Some had already been held for years. Roeper says it is an urban legend that Fonda caused some of them to be killed by what she, Fonda, had done. First of all there are many published books by US prisoners of war in the "Hanoi Hilton" and what transpired subsequent to her treasonous visit. We don't really know if anyone was killed as result because the Vietnamese never gave a full count or names of their US prisoners. The US senior prisoners had the job of finding out who was being held and their names. This was done through a Tap Code and memorization. The books by the US prisoners say that there a few prisoners who were held but then disappeared before the other US service members could identify them. There was reason to believe that if some were killed during torture "quiz" sessions the Vietnamese would not claim to have held them due to predictable unfavorable press reporting in the US. So what would happen was they would be removed, or "cancelled" as we say nowadays, before anyone knew they were actually there. This is common in communist regimes "to disappear" political dissidents before they can be known as unwilling to submit to communist coercion. Most likely none were killed after Fonda's treachery but all who gave her notes who given extra physical torture sessions for what they tried to transmit through her to US military authorities. Of course, Fonda was oblivious to any of this. Fonda actually thought she was a peace maker as she states in her autobiography. But men were tortured to within minutes of their lives after the episode of meeting her. Roeper should have known this since it is covered in numerous memoirs but he was against the Vietnam War as indicated by his entry on John Wayne being accused of dodging the draft. Wayne didn't, as Roeper correctly says. Supposed to be a fun read, and for the most part it is.

Roeper took over for Gene Siskel on the Siskel & Ebert movie review show. Notes, Index, No Photos.… (altro)