The Disinformation Company (abbreviated as Disinfo) was a
privately held
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
publishing company
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
until 2012 when it was sold to
Red Wheel/Weiser/Conari
Red Wheel Weiser Conari, also known in different periods in its history as RedWheel/Weiser, LLC and Samuel Weiser, Inc., is a book publisher with three imprints: Red Wheel, Weiser Books and Conari Books. It is America's second-largest publisher ...
. It also owned ''Disinformation Books'', which focused on current affairs titles and books exposing alleged
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
,
occultism
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism an ...
, politics, news oddities, and purported
disinformation
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate.
The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...
. It is headquartered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, New York. Arguably, its most visible publications to date are ''50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know'' and the ''Everything You Know About ubjectIs Wrong'' series, both by the company's editor-at-large
Russ Kick
Russell Charles Kick III (July 20, 1969September 12, 2021) was an American writer, editor, and publisher.
Russell Charles Kick III was born on July 20, 1969, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Early in his career, Kick wrote articles, a column, and a cover ...
.
History
In 1996,
Tele-Communications Inc.
Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) was a cable television provider in the United States, and for most of its history was controlled by Bob Magness and John Malone.
The company was started in 1958 in Bozeman, Montana as Western Microwave, Inc. and Co ...
(now
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
initiative responsible for online projects like the
Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa.
The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fe ...
and an Internet-based political humor soap opera entitled ''Candidate 96''. The initiative launched its own interactive website, featuring the
tag line
In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, so ...
; "everything you know is wrong". Soon after the site's launch, TCI cancelled funding and support for the site.
The founding team kept it going, being nominated for an award for politics in the first Webby Awards ceremony. The Disinformation Company, as it was now known, was then acquired by Razorfish. Eventually, the Disinformation Company became privately held.
In addition to publishing books, the company also had a home video division as well as multimedia and Internet projects.
In 2000, Disinfo organized DisinfoCon, a 12-hour event featuring
Richard Metzger
Richard Metzger (born July 28, 1965) is a television host and author. He was the host of the TV show ''Disinformation'' (United Kingdom Channel 4, 2000–01), The Disinformation Company and its website, Disinfo.com. He is currently the host of the ...
, rock musician
Marilyn Manson
Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band which shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since it ...
, underground filmmaker
Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927) is an American underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped ...
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open sourc ...
,
Mark Pesce
Mark D. Pesce ( ; born 1962) is an American-Australian author, researcher, engineer, futurist and teacher.
Early life
Pesce was born in Everett, Massachusetts in 1962. In September 1980, Pesce attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MI ...
,
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, w ...
,
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson ...
Todd Brendan Fahey and others.
In 2002, the company produced a four-episode documentary series called ''
Disinformation
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate.
The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...
'' (also alternatively titled as ''Disinfo Nation'').
In 2008, the Disinformation Company itself was accused of spreading propaganda (such as 9/11 "Truth" material) by Louis Proyect.
As of June 17, 2020, the Disinfo.com website was inactive. While the Disinformation Company Ltd. was still listed as the owner, all content was deleted and the domain was for sale.
American Blackout
''American Blackout'' (2006) is a documentary film directed by Ian Inaba. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film chronicles the 2002 defeat, and 2004 reelection, of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to the U.S. House of Represe ...
Let's All Hate Toronto
''Let's All Hate Toronto'' is a 2007 Canadian documentary film co-directed by independent documentarian Albert Nerenberg and Rob Spence. The documentary is a comedic examination of the reasons why so many people in Canada seem to hate Toronto, On ...
Gary Lachman
Gary Joseph Lachman (born December 24, 1955), also known as Gary Valentine, is an American writer and musician. He came to prominence in the mid-1970s as the bass guitarist for rock band Blondie. Since the 1990s, Lachman has written full-time ...
(2003)
* ''
The Passover Plot
''The Passover Plot'' is a 1965 book by British biblical scholar Hugh J. Schonfield, who also published a translation of the New Testament from a Jewish perspective.Hugh J. Schonfield (2005)
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
New York Press
''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011.
The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hento ...
The America's Intelligence Wire
The America's Intelligence Wire is a daily general newswire service. The news service is owned and published by Financial Times, Ltd, which also operates companion newswire Europe Intelligence Wire.
See also
* Business and Company Resource Cent ...
Skeptic
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
Red Herring
A red herring is a figurative expression referring to a logical fallacy in which a clue or piece of information is or is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual question.
Red herring may also refer to: Animals
* Red herring (fis ...