Rating: 
Summary: Funny, informative and interesting take on the Right
Review: Clearly, if you are a big fan of Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and the like, you will not be a big fan of this book. If, however, you enjoyed Franken's earlier efforts, than there will be much to enjoy in this one as well.The premise of this book is that the media and pundits on the Right have a tendency to distort and, well, lie in their discussions on ... I guess just about everything. Franken and a team of Harvard students set out to debunk much of the deception that they have uncovered with cold hard facts. A lot of the lies they expose are shocking and in many cases pretty funny. And Franken's description of his interactions with various people (such as Paul Wolfowitz and Colmes - of Hannity and Colmes) are really entertaining, making me chuckle out loud many times. Of course, an equal number of times I found it all quite frightening and worrisome and depressing, which somewhat tempered the humor quotient! Although I did enjoy the book tremendously, I do not think it is quite as funny as "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot..." and I did have some problems with the fact that Franken does not include more extensive notes (either foot- or end-) while criticizing others for the same practice. Yes, there are end notes, but the facts that he cites are not specifically referenced, which I found strange, given the time he spends criticizing others for that practice or for manipulating citations. Still, if you do look through the notes, you do find the sources that he uses and they are informative. Franken's books and similar ones seem destined to infuriate anyone who does not share, at least to some extent, his political perspective. I do think, however, that there is a lot of important information in the book and that it is presented in an entertaining and humorous fashion - of course, it can't help but be a bit frustrating to see the level to which our current national political discourse has sunk, but that's not a fault of this book. In short, despite a few caveats, I do think this book is definitely worthwhile - informative, smart, and entertaining albeit somewhat depressing....
Rating:
Summary: Al Franken tells the truth (funnily)
Review: Clearly, if you are of the Conservative ilk, you will not like this book. But if you think there is something seriously wrong with people like Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Rush, Karl Rove, and Dubya, then you'll enjoy Franken. He's pretty funny(I laughed out loud every couple pages), if a bit self-aggrandizing. Hence 4 instead of 5 stars. And it gives some great come-backs for the next time you're at a party and someone starts talking about the "liberal bias in the media." Franken tells it like it is, and I only wish that the mainstream media would have the guts to do the same. So: If you're Liberal or Independent, you'll like this book. If you're Conservative: You got bigger problems than Al Franken.
Rating: 
Summary: Companion Book to Ann Coulter's "Slander"
Review: Come on Amazon, you should offer a sale price on "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
by Al Franken
with "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right"
by Ann Coulter They go perfectly together!
Rating: 
Summary: hilarious and true
Review: Comedian Al Franken highlights several myths and falsehoods spun by the administration, Fox, and others. I learned something about the Murdoch "news" organization, Clinton's anti-terrorism efforts, and the media biases, among other things. Frankly, some of the right leaning commentators could try to insert some humor in their topics. I've read Coulter's books and one thing they are not is funny unless you consider calling Arabs smelly humorous. Anyway, Franken's support of the war on Iraq (prior to the war), which I also had, is not the extreme left line and his comments now on the subject are enlightening and parallel to mine. Anyway, it's a fun take on some serious issues. Not a serious political tome, but your money is not wasted if you buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Team Franken goes to war
Review: Comedian/political satirist Al Franken takes on the conservative media establishment with his fifth book "Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" (Dutton, 2003). It is a 379-page tome that examines what Franken says are the litany of lies that right-wing entertainers, who indirectly receive their marching orders from conservative politicians, lobbyists and corporate owners, disseminate into society. For "Lies", Franken employed a staff of Harvard University students, also known as "Team Franken", to dig through right-wing entertainers' comments through their own books, radio and television appearances, newspaper archives and Lexis-Nexis searches - which provide television and radio transcripts. Through these techniques, Franken literally dissects every utterance. Franken shows how rumor or gossip is born in the dominant right-wing media culture. "Lies" also takes apart the liberal media bias myth by shredding apart Rush Limbaugh and his copycats' claim that conservative media balances out mainstream media. Franken argues that there is a serious right-wing bias in The Wall Street Journal editorial page, The Washington Times, The National Review and of course, The Fox News Network. He believes their wrath is more powerful than most media and is mostly responsible for the current state of the union.
Rating: 
Summary: Comedians are funny to watch and borrish to read.
Review: Comedians who's lines were written by Al Franken on Saturday Night Live, became greatly admired by three generations of TV watchers. Mr. Franken's comical lines were amuzing to watch, but never taken seriously. Al's view on reality could never be applied to the real world, except for those free citizens who blindly follow such liberal madness to their grave (e.g Adolf Hitler, Lenin, Rousseau etc). Citizen comedian writer, Al Franken, now, believing his own writings to be of some significant social/political value is boorish, not even to be taken as laughable, having moved from "Saturday Night Live" TV show to "Real World Editorials." It is simply comical to think that a comedians imagination can ever be a source of reliable truth. To top that Mr. Franken's attempt to try to convince the thinking population of the world, that those who seek the truth, tell lies, and are merely lying liars - is an ill conceived premise of poor logic. Has Hitler, Lenin, the current French Government, Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or even Al Franken ever told the world the truth. What a Joke! What liberal Madness! The cure for this disease of Lying is simply laugh at Al Franken's Book, don't buy it! But if you must, the Joke is on you. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
Rating:
Summary: hope god hits him with a bolt of lightning
Review: Complete moronic drivel from a comedian trying to be intelligent about things other than stuart smalley...
Rating:
Summary: Viva Al!
Review: Concerning the reviews for this book: Does anybody else notice the striking inverse correlation of spelling/grammatical mistakes with the amount of stars given?
Rating:
Summary: Regarding reviews regarding other reviews
Review: Concerning the statement: "Concerning the reviews for this book: Does anybody else notice the striking inverse correlation of spelling/grammatical mistakes with the amount of stars given?" No. You're deluded.
Rating:
Summary: Al Franken, a father, a son, a husband, a POLITICAL GENIUS!!
Review: Congrats Mr. Franken!!! You have written one hell of a book here. I have to say when I bought it I wasn't quite sure what to expect from it. But looking back after reading it I must say it was $25.00 well spent. Infact after reading this book I went out and bought your other two books, which I must say were equally as good as this one. Just yesterday I went down to the courthouse in my small little town an changed myself over to a Democrat!!!! THANKS AL!!!! We here in KY are pulling for ya!
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