Further reading
Books, films and reports on the subjects of the reports, with their main claims checked against the exhibit register. The works are not exhibits, and no finding depends on one.
How an entry is checked
Each entry takes the work's main claims, states them in its own words, and checks them against primary documents: statutes, court records, agency and inspector-general reports, peer-reviewed papers and the exhibit register. A claim gets one of four verdicts. Supported: the documents say the same. Partly supported: the documents support part of it or something near it. Contradicted: the documents we hold say otherwise. Not in the record: no document bears on it.
Where the records that could settle a claim have been withheld, redacted or never produced, the row says so and names them. Each entry also lists documented efforts against the work or its sources, such as legal threats, retractions and takedowns, stated as acts and not motives. Works from every direction get the same treatment.
Medicine and Public Health
An Inconvenient Study
The film follows ICAN's effort, beginning in 2017 according to Aaron Siri's Senate testimony, to get a Henry Ford Health infectious disease chief to run a vaccinated-versus-unvaccinated study. It presents the resulting 2020 manuscript, a retrospective cohort of 18,468 children born 2000 to 2016 with 1,957 unvaccinated, which reports a 2.5-fold higher hazard of a chronic condition in vaccinated children. It says the authors would not publish it and that Henry Ford shelved it, and it uses hidden-camera footage of a dinner with the lead physician. Its response page answers critics from Henry Ford, The Conversation and STAT. Its content is described here from ICAN's own pages and press material.
13 claims checked:7 supported · 4 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 2 not in the record
Cries for Help: Injury and Death Buried in V-Safe Data
React19 searched the free-text responses that CDC released from its V-safe COVID-19 vaccine monitoring system for pleas for help, suicidal statements, reports of dying or near death, and reports of a death. The book states that 3,329 participants submitted 14,430 matching entries out of 7,554,929 responses from 3,489,888 participants. A 1,047-page PDF prints a short introduction and method note, 75 sample entries, 30 notable cases, and every matched participant's entries in four sections, grouped by CDC registrant code and dated. It states that entries are self-reported, that it does not assess causation or what CDC did with the reports, and that its counts are a floor. The totals reconcile with the printed text and with the ICAN files; the selection rule does not reproduce from the printed keyword list.
12 claims checked:8 supported · 4 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 0 not in the record
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
Kennedy argues that Anthony Fauci, NIAID director from 1984 to 2022, used NIAID funding and regulatory influence to serve pharmaceutical companies and the Gates Foundation at the cost of public health. Chapters 1 and 2 cover COVID-19: masks, lockdowns, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, remdesivir and the vaccine trials. Chapters 3 to 6 cover AIDS-era AZT, NIAID's trial network and the dissent of Peter Duesberg. Chapters 7 and 8 cover NIAID-linked trials on foster children and in Africa. Chapters 9 and 10 cover the Gates Foundation, WHO and Gavi, chapters 11 and 12 earlier epidemic alarms, gain-of-function funding and biodefense exercises. Endnotes follow each chapter; the Publisher's Note refers to 'thousands of references and citations'.
73 claims checked:5 supported · 44 partly supported · 19 contradicted · 5 not in the record
Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
Goldacre, a physician and science writer, argues that the evidence doctors use to choose drugs is distorted at every stage and that regulators, universities and professional bodies have let it happen. The book has six chapters: missing and selectively reported trials, with antidepressants, reboxetine, Tamiflu and rosiglitazone as case histories; where new drugs come from; regulators; trial designs that favor the sponsor; a case for larger pragmatic trials; and marketing, covering sales representatives, ghostwriting, journals, medical education and patient groups. Each chapter ends with fixes addressed to named audiences, and the afterword uses the July 2012 GlaxoSmithKline settlement as a recap. Sources are endnoted to journal articles, court documents and regulator papers.
27 claims checked:12 supported · 15 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 0 not in the record
Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare
Gøtzsche, a physician who co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration and directed the Nordic Cochrane Centre, argues in 22 chapters that the major drug companies' repeated fraud, illegal marketing and suppression of trial data meet the definition of organized crime. Chapter 3 lists one recent U.S. settlement for each of the ten largest companies and invokes the racketeering statute. Later chapters cover trial design, ghostwriting, medical journals, paid opinion leaders, regulators, and case studies of Neurontin, Vioxx, celecoxib, rosiglitazone, SSRIs, Study 329 and antipsychotics. Chapter 21 estimates that prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death and proposes public funding of drug trials and regulation. The argument rests on settlements, court documents, journal articles and the author's own studies, with first-person anecdotes throughout.
16 claims checked:4 supported · 12 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 0 not in the record
War and Defense
The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War
Whitlock, a Washington Post investigative reporter, narrates the U.S. war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 across four presidencies in twenty-one chapters. The sources are SIGAR's unpublished Lessons Learned interview notes, which the Post won through two FOIA suits, Rumsfeld's snowflake memos, and Army, State Department and Miller Center oral histories. Each chapter sets what officials said in public against what they or others recorded in private. It argues that the mission was never defined, that reconstruction spending outran the ability to use it, that anti-corruption and Afghan security-force programs failed, and that leaders told the public year after year they were making progress while knowing the strategy was not working. Its Note on Sources says about thirty of the 428 interview records are transcripts and the rest typed summaries.
16 claims checked:5 supported · 10 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 1 not in the record
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Weiner, a New York Times reporter, narrates the CIA from its creation in 1947 to 2007 in six parts keyed to presidents and directors, from Truman to George W. Bush. He draws on declassified CIA, State Department and National Security Council records, oral histories and interviews, with notes after each chapter. The book argues that the agency never built a first-rate espionage and analysis service, that presidents ordered covert action to stand in for knowledge, and that directors misled presidents and Congress to protect the agency. Chapters run as episodes: Iran 1953, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, the Church-era disclosures, Iran-Contra, the Iraq estimate, September 11 and the post-2001 detention program.
14 claims checked:6 supported · 6 partly supported · 2 contradicted · 0 not in the record
Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand
Barstow reports that from 2002 the Pentagon's public affairs office recruited more than 75 retired officers who worked as television and radio analysts, briefed them privately, flew them to Iraq and Guantanamo, and gave them talking points. It reports that most analysts had ties to defense contractors, that those ties were rarely disclosed to viewers or networks, and that the Pentagon monitored their coverage through a contractor. The article rests on about 8,000 pages of e-mail, transcripts and records the Times obtained by suing the Defense Department, plus interviews with analysts and Pentagon staff. It names individuals in each account and quotes the Pentagon's spokesman in reply.
10 claims checked:3 supported · 6 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 1 not in the record
Politics and Government
Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America
Gilens collects 1,779 national survey questions (1981-2002) that ask whether Americans favor a specific change in federal policy, breaks each result out by respondent income, and checks whether the change was adopted within four years. He reports that outcomes track the preferences of the 90th income percentile, and that where the 10th or 50th percentile differs from the 90th by more than 10 points, their link to outcomes is statistically indistinguishable from zero. Later chapters repeat the test by policy domain, interest-group alignment, election cycle, party control, 1964-2006 trends and gridlock, and the last chapter ties the pattern to campaign money. He states that the data cannot reach the very rich and that the book measures responsiveness to preferences, not whether policies are wise.
15 claims checked:4 supported · 11 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 0 not in the record
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (revised and expanded tenth anniversary edition; first edition 2002)
Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University, argues that food companies shape federal dietary advice, nutrition societies, research, children's marketing, school food and supplement law, because an oversupply of food obliges them to promote eating more. The book has five parts: dietary guidelines and the 1991-92 Food Guide Pyramid; lobbying, sponsorship of nutritionists, public relations and lawsuits; marketing to children and soft-drink contracts in schools; the 1994 deregulation of dietary supplements; and fortified foods, functional foods and olestra. It rests on government documents, press reports and anonymous sources. The 2013 edition keeps the 2007 text and adds a foreword by Michael Pollan, a preface and an afterword on the 2005 and 2010 guidelines.
22 claims checked:4 supported · 15 partly supported · 3 contradicted · 0 not in the record
The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War
Whitlock, a Washington Post investigative reporter, narrates the U.S. war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 across four presidencies in twenty-one chapters. The sources are SIGAR's unpublished Lessons Learned interview notes, which the Post won through two FOIA suits, Rumsfeld's snowflake memos, and Army, State Department and Miller Center oral histories. Each chapter sets what officials said in public against what they or others recorded in private. It argues that the mission was never defined, that reconstruction spending outran the ability to use it, that anti-corruption and Afghan security-force programs failed, and that leaders told the public year after year they were making progress while knowing the strategy was not working. Its Note on Sources says about thirty of the 428 interview records are transcripts and the rest typed summaries.
16 claims checked:5 supported · 10 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 1 not in the record
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Weiner, a New York Times reporter, narrates the CIA from its creation in 1947 to 2007 in six parts keyed to presidents and directors, from Truman to George W. Bush. He draws on declassified CIA, State Department and National Security Council records, oral histories and interviews, with notes after each chapter. The book argues that the agency never built a first-rate espionage and analysis service, that presidents ordered covert action to stand in for knowledge, and that directors misled presidents and Congress to protect the agency. Chapters run as episodes: Iran 1953, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, the Church-era disclosures, Iran-Contra, the Iraq estimate, September 11 and the post-2001 detention program.
14 claims checked:6 supported · 6 partly supported · 2 contradicted · 0 not in the record
The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
Kennedy argues that Anthony Fauci, NIAID director from 1984 to 2022, used NIAID funding and regulatory influence to serve pharmaceutical companies and the Gates Foundation at the cost of public health. Chapters 1 and 2 cover COVID-19: masks, lockdowns, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, remdesivir and the vaccine trials. Chapters 3 to 6 cover AIDS-era AZT, NIAID's trial network and the dissent of Peter Duesberg. Chapters 7 and 8 cover NIAID-linked trials on foster children and in Africa. Chapters 9 and 10 cover the Gates Foundation, WHO and Gavi, chapters 11 and 12 earlier epidemic alarms, gain-of-function funding and biodefense exercises. Endnotes follow each chapter; the Publisher's Note refers to 'thousands of references and citations'.
73 claims checked:5 supported · 44 partly supported · 19 contradicted · 5 not in the record
Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand
Barstow reports that from 2002 the Pentagon's public affairs office recruited more than 75 retired officers who worked as television and radio analysts, briefed them privately, flew them to Iraq and Guantanamo, and gave them talking points. It reports that most analysts had ties to defense contractors, that those ties were rarely disclosed to viewers or networks, and that the Pentagon monitored their coverage through a contractor. The article rests on about 8,000 pages of e-mail, transcripts and records the Times obtained by suing the Defense Department, plus interviews with analysts and Pentagon staff. It names individuals in each account and quotes the Pentagon's spokesman in reply.
10 claims checked:3 supported · 6 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 1 not in the record
Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress
Bloomberg Markets reports on 29,000 pages of Federal Reserve documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and Fed records of more than 21,000 transactions. It states that the Fed and the largest banks fought for more than two years to keep borrower details secret, that the Fed committed $7.77 trillion in guarantees and lending limits as of March 2009, that borrowing peaked at $1.2 trillion on 5 December 2008, and that banks earned an estimated $13 billion from below-market rates. It quotes lawmakers who say they did not know the specifics and sets the lending beside bank lobbying against the 2010 bill to limit bank size. The piece combines Fed data, the court history, interviews with former officials and economists, and Bloomberg's own net-interest-margin calculation.
9 claims checked:3 supported · 5 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 1 not in the record
The Twitter Files (December 2022 onward) and Murthy v. Missouri, 603 U.S. 43 (2024)
The Twitter Files are internal Twitter emails and messages that the company's owner gave to selected writers, beginning with Matt Taibbi on 2 December 2022, who published them as threads. The audit covers the threads on the Hunter Biden laptop story and on FBI contacts (parts 1 and 7) and Taibbi's House testimony. It sets them beside the record those contacts produced in Missouri v. Biden: the W.D. La. ruling of 4 July 2023, the Fifth Circuit opinion of 3 October 2023, the Chan deposition, the Supreme Court's decision of 26 June 2024 resting on standing, and the March 2026 consent decree. The threads are screenshots with commentary; the court record is sworn testimony and judicial findings.
10 claims checked:3 supported · 6 partly supported · 1 contradicted · 0 not in the record
Food and Agriculture
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (revised and expanded tenth anniversary edition; first edition 2002)
Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University, argues that food companies shape federal dietary advice, nutrition societies, research, children's marketing, school food and supplement law, because an oversupply of food obliges them to promote eating more. The book has five parts: dietary guidelines and the 1991-92 Food Guide Pyramid; lobbying, sponsorship of nutritionists, public relations and lawsuits; marketing to children and soft-drink contracts in schools; the 1994 deregulation of dietary supplements; and fortified foods, functional foods and olestra. It rests on government documents, press reports and anonymous sources. The 2013 edition keeps the 2007 text and adds a foreword by Michael Pollan, a preface and an afterword on the 2005 and 2010 guidelines.
22 claims checked:4 supported · 15 partly supported · 3 contradicted · 0 not in the record
Religious Institutions
Report 1 of the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury (interim, redacted)
Report 1 of the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury covers six of Pennsylvania's eight Catholic dioceses (Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Scranton). It is built from half a million pages of subpoenaed diocesan records and witness testimony, including FBI agents. Section II gives case studies per diocese, Section III summarizes diocesan practice before and after 2002, Section IV makes four legislative recommendations, and Section V profiles more than 300 accused priests with assignment histories. The report states that bishops knew of abuse, kept records in secret archives and placed priests back in ministry. It was released on 14 August 2018 in an interim version redacted by order of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, with diocesan and individual responses attached.
10 claims checked:5 supported · 4 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 1 not in the record
Final Report, Volume 16, Religious institutions (Books 1 and 2)
Volume 16 reports what the Commission learned about child sexual abuse in religious institutions across five years of case studies and private sessions. It gives data from 4,029 survivors who described abuse in religious settings and from claims surveys of Catholic, Anglican and Uniting authorities. It describes institutional responses in the Catholic, Anglican, Salvation Army, Jehovah's Witness, Pentecostal and Jewish institutions, then lists contributing factors: clericalism, governance, theology, canon law, celibacy and confession. It closes with 58 recommendations, some to all faiths, some to named bodies, some to the Holy See through the Australian bishops. The report states its data cannot show incidence or prevalence. Book 1 carries the findings and recommendations; Book 2 carries the history and case material.
10 claims checked:8 supported · 2 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 0 not in the record
Review of Media-Based Ministries: memorandum to Senator Grassley (6 January 2011), with minority staff overviews of Copeland, Dollar, Long and White
The document is a staff memorandum to Senator Charles Grassley, then ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, dated 6 January 2011. It closes an inquiry begun by his letters of 5 November 2007 to six media-based ministries. The memo records that Joyce Meyer Ministries and Benny Hinn's ministry complied and that the four others did not. It then builds overviews of the four from public records and unnamed informants, and describes the tax rules for churches: the Form 990 exception, parsonage allowances, the Church Audit Procedures Act and excess-benefit taxes. It lists options for discussion and recommends against requiring every church to file Form 990. It makes no finding that any ministry violated tax law.
10 claims checked:8 supported · 1 partly supported · 0 contradicted · 1 not in the record