Review: Lies and the Lying Liars ...

I just finished reading Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken. I'll admit it, we wandered into a a Border's bookstore and there was the book, 30% off, piled up right next to the front door. I got suckered by an impulse buy, and all the hype of Fox trying to sue Franken for using their "fair and balanced" trademark in his cover.

This book is a hoot. Franken extensively quotes from various representatives of the "right wing media" (particularly Ann Coulter and Bill O'Rielly) and members of the G.W.Bush administration, where the things they say have virtually no correlation with any actual facts or studies, much less consistency with things they've said earlier. Franken occasionally goes into unnecessary tangents (particularly the chapter about "The Supply Side Jesus"), but most of the book is right on the money, and well worth the time to read it (I finished it all yesterday, the same day I bought it -- it's fairly light reading). This book began with a Franken appointment as a Harvard fellow, of some sort. He recruited 14 students to act as "TeamFranken", doing vast amounts of investigative work to dig up the real statistics relative to the make-believe numbers quoted by his targets.

Probably the most interesting section to me was where Franken discussed the untimely death and memorial services for Minnesota's former senator Paul Wellstone, who was apparently a close friend of Franken. Franken discusses how most of the negative commentary written about the memorial focuses on a few clips that aired on TV. Most of the commentators had not bothered to watch the full four hour ceremony before reaching their conclusions and spreading them widely. To some extent, it's press laziness, and to a greater extent, it's distortion of the truth. I've seen some of the same effects with various people, critical of our research on voting systems, dismissing our work without having actually read it because, well, they heard a biased summary of our work.

I've experenienced some of the things that Franken discusses in my own work, which only makes his book ring that much truer. It's a great read, and I encourage folks to check it out.

I thought we were all agreed that Ann Coulter was posting here. Oh wait, that was just me.

But my question is: is Franken still really funny, or is he starting to lose it?

lose it

I've seldom seen a more rambling incoherent mess than that ``article''. I'll not argue that Franken didn't ``flip out'' (I didn't see the show), but keep to your thesis. There's more tangent there than, to continue a metaphor unnecessarily, circle.

I thought of it as a continuation of thesis in the same way that Franken's subtitle sarcastically suggests a point of view on Fox News. Last night on Letterman he (very sanely, BTW) suggested that the judge who threw out FNC's suit had suggested a better network tagline (which I'd argue might also be applied to NewMax.com): Wholly Without Merit.

Interesting stuff. If you go read the whole transcript of the CNN Crossfire with Franken, it seems like Franken was trying to make fun of O'Reilly's explosive behavior by getting angry and whatnot. I'll bet he was trying to immitate the voice and mannerisms as well, although it's pretty hard to tell from a written transcript.

Unsurprisingly, NewsMax didn't get the joke or chose not to get it, instead reporting on the one place where they could take Franken out of context. Amusingly, this is precisely the sort of thing that Franken documents in his book on the right-wing media. There's something ironic about them trying to do the same thing to him so transparently.

Thanks for this review. You have motivated me (in keeping withthe Hogan Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2003) to put it on reserve at the Seattle Public Library (now that they are re-opened).

I look forward to it.

It's very likely that he was being that subtle, Dan. I wish I had seen the show, but I happen to have seen at least 4 interviews with Al in the past couple weeks, and he seems like the last person to "flip out" and speak rashly.

So far I've seen him on Larry King, the Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher. Granted, these are hardly the same situations as pitting him against O'Reilly. Still, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt over Bill O'Reilly any day.

Al Franken should be shot in the head.

Right after Bill O'Reilly is shot in the nads.

Looking at his recent threads, I think is d33zy is going into his asshole mood swings again. It seems to be a periodic thing with him, seriously suggesting some kind of manic type mental illness.

I am more or less halfway through the book now. I have never had a book make me laugh (at Franken's jokes which are very funny) and piss me off (by the constant and disturbingly effective lies of the right) almost simultaneously. I can not recommend it more.

I wonder what psychiatrists prescribe for that?

/me remembers a Firesign Theater bit about "Anga-drine"...

sorry, I'm schizophrenic. I'll tell my other personality not to post under my account anymore.

idno, i love bill o'reilly