- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Dutton; 1st edition (Aug 26 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0525947647
- ISBN-13: 978-0525947646
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.7 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 635 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2,863 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #198,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Having previously dissected the factual inaccuracies of a single bellicose talk show host in Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, Al Franken takes his fight to a larger foe: President George W. Bush, the Bush Administration, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, and scores of other conservatives whom, he says, are playing loose with the facts. It's a lot of ground to cover, as evidenced by the 43 chapters in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, but the results are often entertaining and insightful. Franken occupies a unique place in the modern political dialogue as perhaps the media's only comedy writer and performer who is also a Harvard fellow as well as a liberal political commentator. This unique and vaguely lonely position lends a charming quixotic quality to adventures such as a tense encounter with the Fox News staff at the National Press Club, a challenge to fisticuffs with National Review Editor Rich Lowry, and an oddly sweet admissions visit to ultra-conservative Bob Jones University (with a young research assistant posing as his son when Franken's real-life son refuses to participate in the charade). Less useful are comic book dramatizations of "Supply Side Jesus" and a fictitious Vietnam War story featuring the numerous righties who, Franken intimates, improperly avoided service. And Franken's criticisms of conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity, O’Reilly, and columnist Coulter, while admirable in their attention to detail, fail to shed much new light on people who have built careers on broad arguments and relentless self-aggrandizement. But Franken is at his best, and most compellingly readable, when he backs off the wackiness and the personal grudges and writes about more personal matters such as the political circus surrounding the memorial service of the late Senator Paul Wellstone. But even on these more serious topics, Franken's wit is still present and, in fact, grows sharper. In a time when much political discourse is composed of rage and shouting, it's refreshing that Al Franken is able to shout in a witty manner. --John Moe
From Publishers Weekly
This witty, scrupulously researched and expertly delivered audio production accomplishes what few nonfiction audio books manage to do-it realizes the full potential of the format. Even those who have already read Franken's book should take the time to listen to this superb audio adaptation, which is enhanced by Franken's impeccable sense of comic timing, eerily precise impersonations and inclusion of source materials. In the most compelling section, for example, Franken juxtaposes two revealing clips to illustrate his view that the late Senator Paul Wellstone's memorial was "cynically distorted for partisan political advantage" not by the Democrats, but by the Republicans. The first clip is from Rush Limbaugh's radio show, where he proclaims in a heavy, lugubrious voice, "The Democrats wrenched Wellstone's soul right out of the grave, assumed it for themselves and then used it for their own blatant, selfish political ambitions.... Show me where the grief was!" Franken follows this with an excerpt from the memorial-which will bring tears to the eyes of any listener, partisan or non-in which David McLaughlin pays tribute to his younger brother, Will, who was Wellstone's driver, bodyguard, adviser and "the one who kept Paul going." By turns sad, funny and serious (but always satirical), this audio book has all the entertainment value of fiction (and even a one-act play called The Waitress and The Lawyer based on one of President Bush's radio addresses), but the issues Franken raises will stay with listeners long after their laughter has died down.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A work to inspire debate,
By Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Hardcover)
The best thing one could wish for about this book - and I'm sure Al Franken will agree with this - is that it inspire debate. And, with 2,847 reviews here and counting, I think it's clear that "Lies..." has done the job. I've been a fan of Al Franken's brand of humor since his first appearances on SNL with partner Tom Davis (by the way, whatever happened to Tom Davis?), the 'Al Franken Decade' and then - after a hiatus - his return to the show which included, among other things, some dead-on impersonations of politicians like Paul Simon ("It's the bow tie, right?") and Pat Robertson. It's clear Franken has a political jones that won't go away. Regardless of your political stripe, you've got to give Franken credit for the work that went into this book: marshalling a team of 14 over a two-year period, this is no hack, slap-and-paste effort. Definiitely worth checking out.
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's about the lies,
By "canoepad" (Rye, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Hardcover)
Every true American patriot should read Al Franken's most recent book. Honest, informed debate is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. "Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them" opens the window to allow the fresh air of truth into public discussion. The book is not about conservative versus liberal. It is primarily about absolutes: lies and truths. A conservative like John McCain would find Franken's book to be a welcome bit of honesty given the current media climate. Many Americans have been misled to think that broadcast journalism is some hodgepodge of entertainment, opinions, selective man-on-the-street interviews, and slivers of facts delivered by videogenic models with the personalities of malicious frat boys. Mr. Franken's book dissects the "lie machine" and it is about time. Fortunately, the sales indicate it's not too late for truth reclamation. I do regret that Mr. Franken did not include the chapter he was working on about how chummy the Bushes are with the bin Ladens. One more thing - it's very, very funny. I am quite grateful that Mr. Franken did not follow in the footsteps of his fellow Lampoon alums, content to change nothing in the world, collecting checks to write unproduced scripts.
3.0 out of 5 stars
No lies, but plenty self-serving,
By
This review is from: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Hardcover)
Al Franken is a funny man, as he has proven in a couple of decades of writing for "Saturday Night Live." And because some of the same right-wing celebrities raise as many hackles on him as they do on me, I wanted very much to like Franken's new book.But Franken's "Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right".. is as repetitive and unwieldly as its title. The book, in fact, gained some undue publicity because of that title. Fox News recently tried to sue Franken for using the words "fair and balanced," claiming that they had copyrighted those words as a trademark for their news broadcast. Franken, almost literally, laughed the case out of court. However, that's one of the few genuine laughs the book earns. Franken tries hard--a bit too hard, at times--to humorously point out many of the distortions made by notable conservatives to support their beliefs. Franken doesn't pick on insignificant targets, either--his grouping of "The Right" includes Rush Limbaugh, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly (on whom he spends an inordinate amount of time), and the current President and Vice-President, among many others. Based on the many inconsistencies documented here, Franken could have presented them straightforwardly and had quite a case. But there are two big problems with Franken's style. First, his intended humor is writ very large, as evidenced in the book's title. It isn't enough for Franken to present a point comedically--he has to repeat it and beat it to death, like a combination of Dennis Miller and Mel Brooks. The second problem is that Franken appears to have as self-serving of an agenda as the people he tries to satirize. Throughout the book, he continuously refers to his careers as an "SNL" writer (at one point describing a '70s sketch he wrote that has nothing to do with the subject at hand) and as a "comedian" for corporate presentations. After a while, it starts to sound like Bob Hope complaining about the generals who hired him to do USO shows. The book isn't painful to read, and some of its barbs are well-deserved. But if Franken had taken most of his overworked satire out of the book, it would have been half as long and twice as readable. As it stands, "Lies" is very difficult to take (you should pardon the expression) seriously.
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