Phil Tinline

Producer and radio presenter Phil Tinline looks at the origins of modern US conspiracy theories in The Report from Iron Mountain and explains why millions of Americans still see the government as an evil deep state today.

The Report from Iron Mountain was a fake government report dreamed up as satire by a group of New York writers in 1967. They concocted what appeared to be a top-secret government report into what would happen to the USA if permanent global peace broke out. It claimed that winding down America’s war machinery would wreck the economy and tear society apart. Many refused to believe it wasn’t real even after the hoax was revealed. Tinline explains how the report was seized upon by figures in the far right and militia movement, who claimed it revealed government conspiracies, how it helped to shape Oliver Stone’s movie, JFK, and how it spawned a second hoax that has helped it to sustain its relevance today.

Tinline worked for BBC radio and has made acclaimed documentaries about how political history shapes our lives. His other books include The Death of Concensus: A Hundred Years of British Political Nightmares.