Web of Conspiracy: A Guide to Conspiracy Theory Sites on the Internet by James F. Broderick and Darren W. Miller. CyberAge Books, 2008. 272 pages

The Internet with its Web sites and blogs allows individuals to seek out and find other individuals with like opinions. Through these contacts these individuals coalesce into groups, and some of the groups grow into organizations. By Googling a few words, a user can find Web sites, chat rooms, and blogs on every topic imaginable, from knitting clubs to neo-Nazi cells, from book discussions to groups engaged in full-contact jousting.

Sometimes we may forget how swiftly these changes have occurred. Fifteen years ago, a group dedicated to the belief that the moon landing was faked would work only through newsletters, books, and perhaps an annual meeting. Today, however, conspiracy theorists can click onto the Internet and within seconds join like-minded companions in exploring the death of Marilyn Monroe or the murky intentions of the Trilateral Commission.

In Web of Conspiracy: A Guide to Conspiracy Theory Sites on the Internet (CyberAge Books, ISBN 978-0-910965-81-1, $19.95), journalists James F. Broderick and Darren W. Miller take readers on a tour of different conspiracy theories via the Internet. Was Marilyn Monroe murdered? For what reasons? Is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion an historical document or an elaborate fake? Is the Order of Skull & Bones, Yale’s secret society to which both John Kerry and George Bush belong, a simple fraternity or a group with larger ambitions? Did Shakespeare write the plays which bear his name or were they really created by another? Did Jim Morrison of The Doors fake his death to live on a ranch in the Pacific Northwest?

Broderick and Miller address these and other conspiracy theories in Web of Conspiracy, an Internet guide designed for all who are fascinated by such theories as well as for those who might take a cursory interest in these topics. Though they occasionally take sides in discussing the information and opinions found on different Web sites and blogs, Broderick and Miller try in general to walk a middle path when explaining a particular conspiracy theory and to look at all sides of the controversy — there are generally more than two — when citing Web sites and the evidence presented.

Although Web of Conspiracy seems at first glance designed to appeal to a restricted audience of conspiracy theorists and buffs, readers in general will find many pleasures in these pages. In addition to the topics listed above, Web of Conspiracy gives sources for the crash of the Hindenburg, the origins of AIDS, Roswell/Area 51, the downing of TWA Flight 800, the JFK assassination, and 10 other purported conspiracies.

Like other good reporters, Broderick and Miller can take a complicated topic and lay out its history and controversy in clear, succinct prose. In the chapter, “The Death of Princess Diana,” for example, the two reporters give us a quick look at the automobile crash that killed the Princess and her lover, Dodi Al-Fayed. They review the conspiracy theories surrounding these deaths, the most popular being that British Intelligence officials murdered Diana. Broderick and Miller then take readers on a tour of the Web sites promoting these theories, as well as Web sites rebutting them. In their conclusion, the two men remind us of the reasons for these controversies — more than anything else, Diana’s popularity has helped drive these accusations of murder. Broderick and Miller point out that “while the British government has concluded that Diana and Al-Fayed died as a result of reckless behavior on the part of their driver and pursuing paparazzi, there will always be those for whom the motive, influence, and evidence lead straight to the gates of Buckingham Palace.”

Web of Conspiracy is an excellent guide to the conspiracy theory bazaar — or bizarre, if you will.

•••

Farhad Manjo’s True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society (ISBN 978-0-470-05010-1, $25.95) deserves to be read hand-in-hand with Web of Conspiracy. Manjoo examines in depth the current state of our media, arguing that talk radio, cable TV, and the Internet are changing the way we look at truth and facts. He shows us how we as a society, liberals and conservatives, have moved away from facts, and have exchanged news and fact-based reporting for punditry and opinion. Using hard evidence, Manjoo demonstrates how truth and facts are manipulated: the falsification of photographs and images on the Internet; the questionable “expertise” often accepted without recourse to reason or even background checks; and the manipulation of language in polls and political discourse that can often hide both facts and truth.

In his “Epilogue,” Manjoo sums up the corrosive effect of these lies and half-lies as the loss of trust, and eventually, as the loss of civilized behavior. Many of us, Manjoo says, have become like modern fans at a football game: the refs are always against us, the other team gets away with fouls and rough play, our own players are saintly in comparison. As Manjoo points out, this is really what we see: our slanted vision becomes our reality, our perceptions become the facts.

Like some of the conspiracy cultists from Broderick and Miller’s book, we are in danger of placing belief above fact, of substituting opinions for truth. As Manjoo ominously concludes in his own arguments regarding fact and truth:

“Choosing means trusting some people and distrusting the rest. Choose wisely.”