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Online Book Release: Feb 7!
The launch of Red White & Blind at Aqus Cafe was a peak experience of my life. It was so much more than I’d envisioned.
The rain was coming down in sheets outside, and it was a beautiful respite in the cozy confines of the cafe. I expected 20 people and then 60 showed up. The place was packed. It went silent as I shared my gratitude and read the passages I’d selected. That was wonderful. But it was the discussions that occurred after I read from the book that moved me most. Each question was deeper than the last.
It’s clear that many, many of us have felt stranded or abandoned by the dominant media narratives that purport to tell us what is happening in our world. Even more of us have lost connection with friends or family because of the polarized media landscape.
We talked about the problems, the narratives, and the lies. We talked about the possibilities too, the goals of Red White & Blind: media consciousness, a balanced media diet, and connecting with each other.
I’ve been trying to piece together photos and video to do the event justice and share it with you, but I don’t have the time or expertise to do it.
So I’m going to do something else. I’m going to do it again, this time online. As several of you suggested, I will host an Online Book Release and Conversation. I will share Red White & Blind with those of you who weren’t able to make it to Petaluma.
I would be delighted if you would participate. I would be honored if you might contribute your presence and thoughts to this book release.
Please join the conversation if you feel inspired.
Red White & Blind
Online Book Release
Tuesday, February 7th
Starts 5:30pm PST / 8:30pm EST
5:30pm – Celebratory toast & casual chat with the author
6:00pm – Book release
zoom meeting details >
Please reserve the time now in your personal calendar. I will be thrilled to see and hear from you as I release this book into the world.
Here is the Facebook event and the Zoom invitation.
I’ll see you there on the 7th.
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PUBLISHED!
Today is the day.
Red, White & Blind day.
After years of work, I can now announce with much pride, relief, humility, and excitement that my second book is out.
Today, the paperback. Tomorrow, on 1/11/23, the ebook for kindle will be available.
Launch Event!
To get your hands on the book today, please join me for the launch party. I have received tremendous interest and I sense it will be a literary celebration tonight at the fabulous Aqus Cafe in Petaluma, California. The place has a mild Euro vibe, a slightly subversive mood, and features great food, drink, and atmosphere. It has built a wonderful community of artists, writers, and musicians in Petaluma over the last decade, and I’m honored to launch my book there. Please come if you can! It would mean the world to me to see you there.
You’ll also get your book first, at a discount, and signed by yours truly.
Order the Book!
If you’re not able to get to Petaluma tonight, no worries. I’m sure that’s most of you, and I would LOVE for you to order the book right now from the comfort of your home. Not only will you get to embark sooner on what I hope is your great personal journey towards media consciousness, but it will also boost the book’s numbers in its first week so that more other people will organically discover it via online search and discovery.
Order the book today and have it in your hands in no time!
- Publisher. You can it most quickly and with the fewest middlemen at the marketplace of the publisher, BookBaby.
www.RedWhiteAndBlind.com/buy > - Barnes & Noble. If you prefer Barnes & Noble, they should ship it quickly too.
www.RedWhiteAndBlind.com/bn > - Amazon. And if you prefer Amazon, they have the book in stock too of course.
www.RedWhiteAndBlind.com/amazon >
This is just the beginning
I’m excited and hopeful that what I’ve uncovered and spent three years putting into print will be of use to you and to many in your life. I’m humbled knowing how much I was able to write and yet how much more I was unable to cover, consider, or investigate. Finally, I’m thrilled to see where the book takes us in the unfolding conversation about the news media, social media, censorship, disinformation, and our longing to be informed about the world.
- Publisher. You can it most quickly and with the fewest middlemen at the marketplace of the publisher, BookBaby.
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The Book Launch is Here
Book Release Party!
After three years of research and revisions, my book will be out in just two days — on January 10, 2023!
You can preorder the book now and also read a free excerpt at my new site www.RedWhiteAndBlind.com
Launch Event!
I’m honored to announce that the official launch of Red, White & Blind will be a literary celebration at the fabulous Aqus Cafe in Petaluma, California.
Speaking of RedWhiteAndBlind.com, there is a new page on that site with everything you need to know about the event. It even includes a link to the Facebook event for those of you who enjoy the FB thing.
As for Aqus Cafe, it has built a wonderful community of artists, writers, and musicians in Petaluma over the last decade, and I’m honored to launch my book there. It has a mild Euro vibe, a slightly subversive mood, and features great food, drink, and atmosphere. Please come if you can! It would mean the world to me to see you there.
Red, White & Blind @ Aqus Cafe
BOOK LAUNCH EVENT
Aqus Cafe
189 H Street, PetalumaTuesday, January 10, 2023
5:00pm – Dinner with the author 😀
6:00pm – Book launch!Ok, that’s it for now. If you happen to live in the Bay Area, I would love to see you on January 10.
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At long last, THE RELEASE DATE!
Red, White & Blind is nearly here. You can preorder your copy for the holidays.
(Also revealed in this episode: the intro to the pilot for the show!)
Three years of writing and research. A changing media landscape. A pandemic. Two elections. And now this book looking at it all is done, edited, wrapped, and ready for you. You can even preorder it today as a gift for that person in your life who might benefit from understanding the news a little more clearly.
For me, this journey began in 2016, as some of you will remember. I was censored for covering that Democratic Primary from a perspective too kind to Bernie Sanders. From stumbling through the low valleys of that frustrating experience, to climbing winding roads through the biased American media, to navigating the hilltops of independent media perspectives with a balanced media diet, I feel like I’m approaching a summit of comprehension of our media landscape as I release Red, White & Blind.
I still have so much to learn.
Every insight, hidden truth, and lesson that I could pack into this book is in there. I hope you’ll read it. I hope you’ll let me know as you go if it helps you, what I got right, and what I missed. I hope you’ll join me on this road to media consciousness. I now know it’s a lifelong journey.
Red, White & Blind is just about here. I’m delighted to announce the release date. Click to view the release date announcement and the intro for the pilot of the show…
Thank you so much. I couldn’t have gotten to this point without your support!
The goal, as always, is to keep uncovering ways to decipher the news media and learn the truth—as much as possible—about the world we live in.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments here or beneath the video.
Best wishes,
Tony
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Podcasts: Left, Right, Up, and Down
It’s been a blast appearing on podcasts and independent media shows in the weeks since I finished the manuscript. If you’d like to get a sneak peek into the revelations of Red, White & Blind before it’s published, listen today to one of my podcast appearances listed below.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how I did and your advice on how I could improve. I was nervous on the first podcast, probably too casual on the second, and failed to stand up for myself on the third. But since those first few, I believe I’ve improved at dropping in when touchy topics arise and proclaiming without fear the key points of the book.
As for the book itself, I can’t wait to get it into your hands. The publication date will be announced very soon. Consider these podcasts a teaser of what five years of research into the history of media distortion and propaganda have taught me. Our media system is deceptive, and it’s a huge problem as we live through elections, pandemics, and wars, but we’re also living in a time with a New Enlightenment dawning around us. We can know more of the truth about world events than any humans living before us—if we build the media consciousness to navigate the news and penetrate the censorship plaguing social media.
The diverse range of shows that have hosted me means you probably get to choose an interview hosted by someone with whom you agree (although I always recommend a Balanced Media Diet). I’ve been interviewed by left-leaning hosts (Tarabuster, Dig on America), right-leaning hosts (Deprogram, Grimerica), hosts seeking concealed truths (Unbridled Minds, Forbidden Knowledge News) and hosts just wanting to interview interesting people (Ripple Effect).
I’ve listed each show below with a snippet of its self-description and a brief summary of how I think it went, so you can choose your own adventure. I find each one listed here to be worthwhile, but if you want to listen to just one, I’d recommend Unbridled Minds or The Ripple Effect.
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IT’S DONE: Cover, Title, Subtitle
Many thanks for your thoughts, suggestions, and wisdom! Your votes for the book’s subtitle varied even more widely than those for the cover. Looking through the results, and talking to a range of people—including some of the Alpha and Beta Readers who read the full book—the first thing I realized was that I had to keep the subtitle short.
The second thing I realized was that I needed to combine both a tiny summary of the book and a brief focus on the book’s ultimately positive analysis about where our troubled media landscape is headed.
It was a bit like composing a haiku.
I couldn’t include censorship, propaganda, and disinformation in the subtitle. I couldn’t even have two of those buzzwords. I needed to choose one.
This first half of the subtitle came down to a dilemma between censorship and disinformation. Both concepts are central to the book’s premises and receive deep analysis. Your votes helped me to see that one of these words is more compelling to Americans in 2022 than the other. I believe I landed on the one with the widest interest: Disinformation.
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Vote on the Subtitle!
I’d be honored to have your help with one more part of this forthcoming book. First, thank you for voting on the cover of the book. It’s now set, and I think it’s a beauty.
Choosing a subtitle might not be as exciting or as sexy as the cover of the book, but these little words that follow the title might be even more important in determining who finds the book
- Search engines index the subtitle.
- Humans looking for a book like mine won’t likely search on the words “red,” “white,” or “blind.”
- The subtitle should also be a concise but accurate summary of the contents of the book.
- Finally, and maybe most important, the subtitle should be an attractive pitch for the book.
Yes, in the words of RUN DMC, choosing a subtitle is tricky.
(more…) - Search engines index the subtitle.
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REVEALED! The Cover
Don’t judge the book by it, but I’m revealing the cover today to my new book, Red, White & Blind.
My deep gratitude to all of you who reviewed the potential book covers in my previous post! Special thanks to you if you voted for your favorites and commented as to why you liked the ones you liked. That was very helpful. Thank you!
It came down to a two-horse race. The runner-up was one that many of you liked, the red cover with the dripping paint crossing out the title. And the winner was…
Now that you’ve seen it…
What do you think? Do you like the imagery of the eye behind the blinds? What does it evoke for you? Does it pull you in? Scare you off? Is it memorable?
Please let me know in the comments on the video or here on my blog. It’s very helpful.
Special kudos to Kevin Christaldi in Oregon who pointed out that the pulls on the blinds shouldn’t be red lest they appear to be drops of blood in a thumnail image. Kevin, do they look better now? Or do they look like tears now?
The next poll, coming up, will focus on the subtitle. I’ve spent a lot of time hammering it out, but it’s still subject to change, and I’m curious of your thoughts. How does it strike you: “Unveiling Disinformation & Censorship at the Dawn of the New Enlightenment.”
Tell me in the comments below.
Thank you once again.
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How to Ensure Emails Go to Your Inbox
Off-topic a bit, but important for some of you here. My substack is new and many of you are either new subscribers or were moved to substack from my legacy email list. Here are a quick set of steps to follow if you’re subscribed to my substack newsletter but the emails are disappearing or going into your Promotions folder on gmail.
I made a quick video on how to move messages from your Promotions folder to your inbox — and ensure they always go there.
The steps followed in the video are
- Go to your Promotions Folder
- Find the email from “Tony Brasunas at Red, White & Blind”
- Drag that email onto your Inbox tab
- Click YES to have this done for every email from me.
Here’s the video:
The video goes through the four steps to ensure my emails end up in your inbox, not the Promotions folder. -
My First Podcast Appearance
- Why couldn’t the media report on the lab leak theory of covid for over a year?
- Why was I censored by Huffington Post?
- Why is my forthcoming book called Red, White & Blind?
My heart was beating quickly. The host threw questions at me.
It was my first appearance on a podcast in my life. It was also the first public event talking about Red, White & Blind. Take a listen at the link below if you’re interested!
I was nervous for sure, but after 10 minutes or so I settled in. At least I think so. I explained what I mean by the term “the New Enlightenment,” how I compose a Balanced Media Diet, and what I propose as a business model for independent media. I even got into an interesting conversation with Mr. Parker about the term “conspiracy theorist.”
I think I was able to articulate myself reasonably well, but let me know your thoughts in the comments below. What did I do well? What did I do poorly? It was my first time so I’m viewing it as a learning experience and your thoughts will be very helpful.
Take a listen if you’d like to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly about where I see media, censorship, and disinformation going in this country.
Deprogram with Michael Parker
Today’s Talk News Radio (TNTRadio)
Interview July 26, 2022
Podcast Interview (starts at 04:50) >(By the way, TNTR is live radio. You’ll hear news updates and commercials during the podcast. Enjoy! Or skip over them.)
- Why couldn’t the media report on the lab leak theory of covid for over a year?
Connect & Share