Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: Wow! Someone is finally standing up to the right-wing rhetoric that the media inundates us with day in, day out. It's absurd: every time you turn on cable news, some right-winger is bellowing about the downfall of morality in modern times because of the "liberal-controlled media." Funny: I can't find one single liberal news show, and believe me, we need one to balance out the bellowing of the right-wingers.While the right-wing morons generally out-shout their opponents, Franken uses humor to deflate their absurd arguments. He reveals how Fox News is operated and controlled by the right wing, and how preposterous their claim to "fair and balanced" reporting is. It's a sad state of affairs when a "news" channel can lie outright about its content, and then sue Franken when he exposes these lies. Someone really should sue Fox News for false advertising or unethical business practices under Cal Bus Code Section 17200. Fox News is less "fair and balanced" than O'Reilly's last gig on "Inside Edition." Franken makes short shrift of Coulter, O'Reilly, and Hannity. It's refreshing that there are voices like Franken's out there. If one were to go by cable news alone, one would think that America was a nation of brain-dead sycophants in a cult of slave worship to their Chimp Prince Dubya.
Rating: 
Summary: Nail on the head
Review: Wow! What can I say about this well researched and thorough book? Franken knows his stuff and puts it to the lying, deceitful right-wingers. At times, he's a bit pedantic, but that is absolutely overwhelmed by his attention to detail and persuasive arguments that the conservative movement is out to do an "extreme makeover" on America.
Rating: 
Summary: He found the secret
Review: Wow!! Al has really found the secret to make something out of nothing. All we need to do is to pick a forum, make up a bunch of lies, and hype it in print. Anyone can say anything about anything and make big bucks. I can not wait until the next installment of Big Al's rants is published. Get a life and find a new career!!!
Rating: 
Summary: left bashers show amazing intellect
Review: wow, look at the negative reviews for this book and others like it! Conservatives show their superior knowledge and insight with such criticisms they post on the Amazon reviews: "Go Live in France", "White guys are just better looking". Your mistake is that you elected (?) a president so dumb that its becoming a pastime to trash his shortsighted administration. It's too easy....like shooting fish in a barrel. These conservatives who post can't win arguements based in reality and logic so let the cheap shots keep coming! viva la ignorace.
Rating:
Summary: Witty, Wise, Uncovers Lies...Right Wingers Despise....
Review: Wow, this book is simply amazing. First of all, I was a little lukewarm about reading this because I had just finished Dude, Where's My Country by Michael Moore. This book, however focuses more on the media and I must say that it is more entertaining than Dude.
To begin with, this book tells the truth very well, it covers how well, (or poorly) the media distort the television we view and the papers we read. Liberal bias? No, this is a non-existent problem. Franken covers Sean Hannity, Bill O'Lielly, Ann Coulter, and once again, Rush Limbaugh.
This book is mainly about how the right-wingers always manage to blame Clinton and fellow dem's for the state of the nation, when in fact, they are the ones to blame. There are many incidences where people like Sean Hannity include bogus facts, research and charts to bash Clinton and other Democratic leaders.
This book, of course isn't always funny, it is, in fact downright sad sometimes, but it offers good encouragement to me and my fellow liberals, and says that there is hope, but first, let's make fun of stupid liars!
Rating:
Summary: This guy is funny!!!
Review: Wow, what a read; to begin: Franken sets-up the book great from the beginning. He lets the reader know WHAT'S UP right from the start. Franken makes fun of and exposes, using facts and verifiable citations, the ultra-conservative far right media. My favorite parts in the book include O'Reilly's 2 Peabodys, his book, the trip to Bob Jones University (hillarious), and most of all Wolfowitz's comment regarding "Clinton's military." The book is well researched and arguments are well supported. Does it have a liberal bias? Just a slight bit. If you are a conservative, it is going to be a challange to refute a lot of the claims made in the book. But I'm sure that you can find a justification and an exception for any case, can't you?
Rating:
Summary: Franken Hits Another One Out of the Park
Review: Wow. I didn't think he could be funnier than he was with his Rush Limbaugh book, but here's the proof. Franken stays on target with a witheringly funny look at the exaggerations, evasions, and outright lies so often (and so loudly) repeated by the right-wing media. If you're interested in how information gets manipulated and distorted by the enemies of factually accurate information (at FOX News, the Weekly Standard, virtually all of AM talk radio, the Washington Times, the New York Post, and the WSJ editorial page), AND you want a refreshing, smart-ass perspective on how the blowhards of the right get their way, read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Still standing after all the "withering" criticism
Review: Wow. The liars just keep repeating the lies in the hope they'll gain the patina of truth. Let me try here to shovel some of the manure out of the way. When Ann Coulter erroneously claims that Evan Thomas is the son of Norman Thomas, one reviewer takes Franken to task for seeming to imply in the book that there is absolutely no relationship between Evan and Norman. When the reviewer learns through another source that Evan is actually the grandson of Norman, the reviewer indignantly penalizes the book with two stars. Justifiable, I suppose, if Franken was hiding this from the reader. Except that Franken really does say just that. That Evan is the grandson of Norman. In the book. It was one of two endnotes he included to prove the point that endnotes are easily missed, inconvenient to reference, not researched further by readers, and generally ignored. Which all sort of proves Franken's point with flying colors, wouldn't you say? Ann Coulter always brags about the hundreds upon hundreds of endnotes she includes in her books. Makes me a teensy bit skeptical of the critical faculties of the mentioned reviewer who claimed to enjoy Coulter's books. Next, there's the "lie" of the prank letters soliciting high-profile officials to enumerate inspirational personal stories of abstinence. Franken inappropriately used Harvard letterhead for them. He does not try to hide any of this -- it is fully discussed in the book. Personally, I find calculated dishonesty like Bush's "By far the vast majority of my tax cuts go to those at the bottom end of the spectrum" much more insidious and infuriating than a prank. But I'll let you decide which is more important. Also, some have smirkingly referenced Ann Coulter's dot-org site where she attempts to rebut the charges of lies. I encourage everyone to visit the site, ESPECIALLY AFTER you've read Al Franken's book. You will see how incredibly weak or nonexistent her arguments are, although I can see how someone might fall for her perpetual lie machine if they've never read Franken's book in the first place. Her arguments range from okay-I-have-corrected-that-error-for-future-editions bitterness in which she snidely congratulates liberals for catching a few tiny mistakes in all her hundreds and hundreds of references. You know, liberals like Al Franken who shows that many times these "tiny mistakes" were the basis of a bigger argument Coulter was making that then collapses like a house of cards. Once you've read Franken's "Lies and Lying Liars," you will find the rest of Coulter's points hilariously weak (this woman was actually a lawyer once?!). For example, about a Jesse Jackson TV address in Great Britain she states emphatically that "THE NEW YORK TIMES DID NOT REPORT THE SPEECH" (all-caps hers). Keep in mind, this is her argument even after Franken proves in his book that the New York Times did indeed report on the speech, including excerpts of it. So how can she make such a claim? The only thing I can figure is she blows a gasket because the NYT did not include one specific quote she had in mind. So you see, what she's doing here is redefining the word "report" to mean "quote in full." It wouldn't surprise me if she would make the distinction that the NYT had reported ON the speech, just not reported the speech. Understand? Very slimy-lawyer-like reasoning which dissolves like wet tissue upon closer inspection. And it goes on and on. Franken shows how a summary of a book in a book review is proof in Coulter's world that the NYT espouses the views of that particular book. Therefore, any quote from any source can be construed as representing the point of view of that newspaper. She claims to find the accusation of spurious logic here confusing. She still claims it's quite proper to say the NYT "allows" such things to be printed in their pages. Between Ann Coulter's lame rebuttals and Bill O'Reilly's increasingly infantile behavior, conservatives have found that all they can do is twist and squirm under the cold, hard press of facts presented by Franken in this wonderful book. But beware: the neocons are still out there repeating their lies over and over with increasing volume and hysteria.
Rating:
Summary: These reviews are GREAT!
Review: Writing as one who as both read this book and ventured down the line of reading the books from the right (Coulter, O'Lielly, etc al) I'd have to say I really enjoy skimming through some of these reviews. People who review the reviews, do us a favor and write a comment here if you've read the book. Otherwise go get a Blog somewhere and post you tripe there. My opinion on the book: Someone said it before and I'll reiterate the point, it's not as funny as his book on Rush Limp-a-doodle. It does have its moments, though. Personally, I found it clear and truthful with minimal zeal (which is something you certainly can't attribute to the books from the "right"). It's a fast and thoroughly enjoyable read unless you're completely blinded by the rightwing media and all of its hyperbole (which is to say, you'd probably have the same reaction to documented facts that some of these rabid dogs have posted here). Really brings to light the fact that Pox news is nothing more than an overproduced, 24/7 rendition of the Jerry Springer Show. So to those of you enjoy tabloid, follow-the-sheep press, this will probably aggravate you into original thought. The "conservative" ilk should just stay with absorbing Government Press releases and Pox broadcasts (seeing as though media relations are only dealt with on Pox these days) for disinformation and not waste their powers on alternate perspectives - it could be damaging (truth hurts and seeing true journalistic verve can ultimately be your undoing). ;) Keep up the informative reviews!
Rating:
Summary: Just political propaganda
Review: Written for those that are incapable of independant thinking. The "facts" are not supported in any research I did but I suppose that if you believe in the tooth fairy and Easter bunny then this is the book for you. Not worth the read. Would rather clean out my garage.
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