Rating: 
Summary: Honesty about the right
Review: Al Franken writes a well-researched and documented account of lies of the right-wing, including W, his cabinet and all the pundits such as O'Reilly and Hannity.
As a reformed former Reagan-supporter (I still feel the shame) I know how hard it is for Bush lovers to be open to the truth. I recommend this book whole-heartedly, especially for persons seeking an honest and humorous look at a CONSERVATIVE media, and how they tote the line of W, a man who is a bigger liar than his father (and that's hard to do!).
Rating: 
Summary: Not Nearly As Good As It Should Have Been
Review: Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" is part of an unofficial liberal trilogy designed to confute the arguments of such right-wing conservative authors as Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. As with the other two books, Joe Conason's "Big Lies" and Eric Alterman's "What Liberal Media?," how well you think he does depends to a certain extent on where you fall along the ideological spectrum.Having read and liked the other two books, I have to admit that Franken's book (which for the sake of brevity I'll refer to as "LATLLWTT:AFABLATR") was far less effective than I thought it would be, and frankly a little disappointing. While a certain amount of latitude should be given to a political satirist who is essentially a comedy writer rather than a serious writer on politics or public policy, I still have to say that this book is profoundly flawed. There are some instances where Franken is just, as the Brits would say, spot on - his account of how he refuted the arguments of Bernard Goldberg, author of the mendacious best-seller "Bias," on live television is both hilarious and convincing. And the chapter "Operation Ignore" makes a convincing case that, had Al Gore been occupying the White House in 2001, the events of September 11 might never have happened. However, there are other parts where he crosses the line between satire and the same kind of mean-spiritedness he declares so reprehensible when indulged in by conservatives. He's also on occasion just plain wrong. For example, he makes a big deal of Ann Coulter in her recent book "Slander" saying her book has 780 footnotes when her book has endnotes, and not footnotes. This is a valid criticism, and one which I made of Coulter myself in my Amazon.com review of "Slander." However, for Franken to go on to say that using endnotes instead of footnotes is in and of itself "lying" because "Endnotes are much harder to reference" is just ridiculous. Franken knows full well that no mainstream publisher would permit an author to publish a book that was written for a wide, non-scholarly audience with 780 footnotes in the text. It just wouldn't happen. Blaming Coulter, therefore, for not doing what no mainstream publisher would allow her to do is hypocritical. He is also not immune to the same kind of ad hominem attacks that he professes to deplore. His treatment of Fox News star blowhard Bill O'Reilly in particular is pretty crass. His constant reference to O'Reilly's appearance as "splotchy" and his incessant personal attacks (such as claiming on page 65 that O'Reilly's book is called "Living with Herpes") make it pretty clear that this is not simply politics but a personal vendetta. O'Reilly is easy enough to skewer without having to get this nasty about it. I should also point out that Al Franken is no Brad Pitt himself, so for him to indict O'Reilly for the way he looks is a bit like the pot calling the kettle unattractive. Franken had, as Hillary Clinton might say, "a lot of help" writing this book from no less than 14 assistants at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Now, in and of itself there's nothing wrong with using assistants to do research (Winston Churchill, for example, had almost as much help while drafting his "History of the English Speaking Peoples"), but the result seems to be a book that's structurally disjointed and way too long. "LATLLWTT:AFABLATR" would be a much better book if it was at least one-third shorter. It seems that, having had all this help, Franken felt somehow constrained to use everything that he was given to work with, and the result is a book that is overstuffed with what feels like filler (and outright errors: you would think that he would be able to spell correctly the name of the woman he calls on page 162 a "courageous whistleblower": it's Coleen Rowley, not Colleen Rowley - to be fair, CNN made the same error). While we're nit-picking, he also undercounts the number of times Ann Coulter claimed in "Slander" that "Ronald Reagan won the Cold War": it was eight times, not seven (I may not have gone to Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, but I can count). There are sections that are painfully unfunny, such as the entire chapter "Operation Chickenhawk: Episode One," which reminded me that Al Franken is not just the best-selling author of "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" but also the screenwriter of "Stuart Saves His Family," one of the biggest bombs of recent years. It should have been cut, along with the pointless chapter where Franken goes to the racist Bob Jones University in an attempt to get one of his assistants admitted. Likewise the chapter "The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus," which is both hamfisted and unfunny. Don't get me wrong: there are plenty of things to like about this book. It's just that other writers have done it better, without all the vitriol and filler. While I was hoping to recommend this book, I now find myself, with some regret, saying that if you want to read a book that takes on the radical right and their agenda for America, you're much better off reading either Joe Conason or Eric Alterman - especially Alterman. Perhaps refuting the radical right is too important a task to be left to comedians.
Rating:
Summary: Highly reliable and Humourous
Review: Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" is both highly reliable and humourous -- a compelling and entertaining book at the same time. Thank you Al Franken!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Good enough, Smart enough, but doggonit who cares
Review: Al Franken's abbraisive attitudes got him in trouble when he worked at Saturday Night Live. He saw himself as St. George ambushing the dragon when he verbally attacked former V.P. Spiro Agnew in the dressing room of another show. It didn't matter that Franken had his facts wrong. In a later interview, he admitted he had the wrong information, but did not seem to care in the slightest. Now, more than 20 years later, Franken still sees himself as sainted when he jumps people he disagrees with from behind. You Right-wingers may not like this guy, but he is quite funny 50 percent of the time. You Left-wingers may think Franken is a comic genius, but half of his jokes are nothing but mean-spirited, stupid, quips. If Franken deserves credit for anything, it is for believing his own message. (And for believing in himself.) Franken may not be especially funny all of the time, he may be wiling to overlook the weakness of many Democrats, he may insist on hard-data analysis of Republican claims while taking Democrat claims on face value, he may seem purposely naive at times, and he many pat himself on the back for his own nasty behavior, but he is sincere; and for that, he deserves credit. As for whether or not you should buy this book... If you are a conservative Republican (especially if you are a Hannady, Limbaugh, or O'Reilly listener), or a Bush supporter, don't bother. You will not appreciate the humor. You will often feel offended. You will want to debate points like a conservative talk show host, but many of these points do not stand up to close study. If you are of a liberal bent, buy this book. You will find Franken both brilliant and insightful. He will affirm what you already believe, citing studies from groups with prestigious-sounding names and hardcore agendas. Either way, if you are looking for new information, this book is vapid.
Rating:
Summary: Franken scores again!
Review: Al Franken's ability to entertain and inform shines in "Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)." When the reader realizes that the targets of this work would surely sue Mr. Franken for libel if his devastating attacks on their character were not true, then it makes this book even more remarkable. I especially enjoyed Mr. Franken's documentation of Bill O'Reilly's lies about winning two nonexistent Peabody Awards and being an "independent" while trying to hide the fact that he is registered as a Republican. It's nice to see bullies get their comeuppance.
Al Franken deserves much credit for his audacity and courage in getting "right in the face" of powerful conservatives not only in person, but also in print. Keep up the good work!
Rating: 
Summary: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced
Review: Al Franken's babble is classic liberal nonsense. All liberal thoughts are enshrined as precious words from the Oracle while all conservative thought is branded extreme by name-calling. Another liberal in-capable of intellectual discourse, no surprise here. Don't waste your money or your mind.
Rating:
Summary: Funny fiction
Review: Al Franken's book came in handy when I ran out of toilet paper...this guy is another one of those ranting lefties who's arguments are devoid of any real intellectual substance based in true facts and reality. It's all emotionally based, intellectually bankrupt but what the hell, free speech...."It's better to remain silent and appear stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt" Al should have kepy his mouth closed.....
Rating:
Summary: Al Calls the Right to the Carpet
Review: Al Franken's book effectively talks about how conservative commentators distort information that they give to the public. He makes the argument that this happens because commentators don't do adequate research or do the leg-work that is necessary (such as phoning sources) to double-check facts and this has resulted in laissez-faire journalism. The stories are then spun in such a way as to inflame the public. Since this has happened so often over the past twenty years, the mainstream media has been conditioned to pick up these stories right away so they can be on top of stories that people are hearing on conservative talk shows. But while the mainstream media continues to pick up these stories from the right, conservative commentators criticize the media as being liberal which seems to push news organizations more to the right as they try to grab the attention of conservative audiences. As a result of the severe lashing out by the right, we've gotten to the point where the mainstream media is reticent to sounding critical of the Bush administration or its policies, which is detrimental to democracy in this country. This well-researched book provides many concrete examples of this type of reporting and demonstrates how the Bush administration has manipulated the media to disseminate lies of its own (like "We found the weapons of mass destruction"). The reason that people find this book so hilarious is because Al uses the same tone and language that you hear when you listen to conservative commentators and turns it on them. As evident from comments from conservative readers, this apparently infuriates them. But probably not enough to change the conservative dialogue to a more civil tone.
Rating: 
Summary: Political humor at its best.
Review: Al Franken's book has been a wonderful read. Unlike many authors from the left or the right, his book is backed up by serious research and presentation (not misrepresentation) of facts. He points out what methods people from the right use to lie to their audience. He provides a lie detector for his readers to use. That he is willing to do so shows that he is confident that his own book will pass the lie detector test. Let the intelligent reader be the judge. Take the paragraph on using graphs for example. He presents data, and uses it to draw two graphs. One graph is honest, and the other is misleading. He then pokes fun at Wall Street Journal by pointing out (correctly) that the latter is exactly what WSJ would use. Obviously Paul Krugman has given him a good lesson on this subject. Those interested in learning about how to lie with statistics and graphs, Paul Krugman's "The Accidental Theorist" is an excellent reference. Still there are drawbacks. He at times overuses the tactic employed by his opponents: name calling, lying (then using a footnote, or worse, endnote to retract it), etc. For a person who has not read Coulter or O'Reilly, this may seem especially appalling. The paragraph poking fun at O'Reilly softcore porno novel is a bit of a stretch. It would also have been better if there had been an index at the end of the book. People can then easily find where, when, and how each liar lied about what. I suppose this is due to the unexpectedly earlier release date. This should be corrected when the paperback is out.
Rating:
Summary: Lies By A Liar Who Tells Them Over And Over
Review: Al Franken's book is a load of tripe sure to please the libs for whom it is targeted. Franken and those of his ilk can't get over the fact that they no longer have a media monopoly for their point of view. I certainly found myself laughing when I read this book, but not at the condescending "humor" of Franken's diatribe. Rather,
I laughed at the ludicrous distortions (i.e. LIES) used by AL to "prove" his points. Franken takes the usual implicit approach that liberalism is morally and ethically superior to consevatism (or any other competing viewpoint!). Those espousing a conservative viewpoint must be duplicitous, and just a little bit stupid (hee hee). Hence it is OK for Franken to tell whatever lie he needs to prove his point because he is on the side of VIRTUE. It's hard for me to believe that everything can be as one-sided as Franken would have us believe. Yep, there was quite a lot of unintended irony, and believe me, I was laughing at Al, not with him.
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