Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right

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Summary: one word; brilliant
Review: al franken exposes the right wing liars for what they are. he clearly shows us why they are liars with a little thing called "proof." what is so significant about this book is that it shows where people who support the right get their information from.

this book also talks about all the anti-terrorism work clinton did during his administration. people say he did "nothing" because he didn't unneccesarily invade a country and murder american troops like another president has.

overall, this book is incredible and shows how the right winged manipulate the media to get the feable minded on their side.

Rating:
Summary: Infuriatingly Hilarious.
Review: Al Franken is what you'd call a "polarizing figure," to be sure - but not really in quite the same way as his Righty targets Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly et al. It's basically a case of offense-defense. The kind of Right-wing media epitomized by Fox News has made a veritable fine art of The Spin - and this includes O'Reilly's assertion that his is a "No Spin Zone," because the most potent spin of all is to call something the precise opposite of what it actually is, a method extremely effective on the sort of cranky half-wits that make up the "Factor" viewership. Certainly this is also the typical modus operandi employed by ole "W" - witness cleaner air by deregulation, or his assertion that he has a "mandate" and "political capital" after the narrowest win in history, with half the country hating his guts. Franken is simply writing from the point-of-view of somebody who is sick of this kind of nonsense. It's probably extremely annoying for the Right to actually be called out for their crimes, but they can rest assured that their racket is essentially safe from attack - no known form of explosive can have the smallest impact upon the extraordinarily dense brains of a majority of their constituents, who are perfectly content accepting lies and propaganda as long as it's all decked out in superficial tinsel imagery of "faith" and "morality."

No sane person can possibly take an Ann Coulter or a Sean Hannaty or a big fat idiot Rush Limbaugh seriously, or for more than 5 minutes. As Franken remarks with regard to Coulter, "you have to give me credit for being able to stomach the entire screed." Indeed. Criticizing Coulter is also likened to shooting fish in a barrell, and that's why Franken can admittedly come off a trifle petty sometimes - it's rather like "playing basketball with a retard and calling him out for double dribble." Just so, the point of (e.g.) Franken's chapter on Bill O'Reilly's misstatements with regard to Inside Edition's journalism awards is often willfully lost on conservative readers - it's not just that O'Reilly made a simple factual error, an honest, forgivable mistake; it's that he then proceeded to aggressively LIE about it in an ironic effort to preserve his reputation. Yet people DO take these Right-wing pundits seriously, buy up their books like proverbial hotcakes, and parrot their radical assertions ad nauseum until you find every Yahoo news message board congested with badly regurgitated "conservative" propaganda carried to its vulgar extremes of bigotry and hypocrisy. Franken's books represent an attempt by the Left to redress the balance in pop culture. For all the Right's continued harping about the "Liberal bias in the media," the fact remains that obviously partisan, unfair and unbalanced media outlets such as the aforementioned Fox News and anything associated with Rupert Murdoch have been insinuating themselves further and further into the mainstream, and are exerting a palpable influence on the culture at large. And in spite of the fact that probably a majority of people who are taken in by these hate-mongers and fear-pushers are incapable of sober and rational thought in the first place, and can never be converted merely by showing them how they've been deceived and manipulated, it's still extremely important for the Left to have equal shelf space, so to speak, in the marketplace of ideas.

So we may not be able to reach the Toby Keith-rocking, compensatory gun-toting, Billy Graham-supporting, abortion clinic-bombing, "W" ketchup-using, gay funeral-picketing, evolution-disputing, cross-burning, uneducated, inbred, slackjawed Walmart habitues with "Support Our Troops" stickers on the back of their gas-guzzling SUVs, who actually suppose that it's "patriotic" to laud all our worst ignorances and hypocrisies as American virtues. So these people may indeed have the final say in America - certainly they have had a good year - and this country may very well devolve into a backwards, benighted travesty of its former status as a land of freedom and opportunity and democracy and tolerance. It is truly NOT alarmist to think so - it's already happening. If you don't want to read Al Franken, go pick up "1984"! But meanwhile, as long as psychos like Coulter and Limbaugh continue to pollute the culture with their preposterous invective, it's nice to know that we have Franken, Bill Maher, Janeane Garofalo, etc. on the other side to cleanse the field of discourse with an occassional much-needed douche of comic common sense.

Rating:
Summary: He is a iiar and knows how to tell them
Review: Al Frankin ....Grow Up and get a job. You would know about lies. That's all you do is tell them and get paid well for them. We can always depend on you can't we Al.

Rating:
Summary: Apart From SCARECROW, The Finest Of The Bunch
Review: Apart from the indisputable anit-Bush masterwork, Bill Jabanoski's SCARECROW, which not only tears Bush and his cronies apart, but offers solutions to not only the debacle of our foreign policy, but tells us what is wrong in our human nature that allows things like this to happen and how to fix it, I find Franken's book to be the best of the anti-Republican monarchy books I have read.

Franken's wit has never been sharper, more biting or more directly on target. FOX news Channel believers and other disjointed or just plain ugly minds will dislike this book. If you do not belong to that club you will both laugh and learn from it. I give it five well-deserved stars for excellent and important satire.

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Summary: This is true comedy, not political satire
Review: Franken is flat out hilarious in this novel. Even if you are a Republican, you can't help but laugh at most of the hilarious ideas that Franken uses in this book. This isn't a political movement, this isn't a book to advance political ideologies like most other novels are nowadays... it is simply a book about being honest in the media. I will definitely bring up this book in my upcoming college class 'Media and Politics'. I don't think there is a soul out there that can disprove any of what Franken is saying because he lays such a solid foundation upon what he writes. This book is definitely a new weapon for liberal thinkers to advance their idea of neutral media bias.

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Summary: Truth and Humor - How Refreshing!
Review: I enjoyed this book because it presented such accurate information in such a humorous way. During a time when the lies of our government and our right-winged media has brought on such dire consequences, this is very refreshing.

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Summary: An enjoable read -- even for a Republican!
Review: I know I'm echoing some of the other reviews here, but I just couldn't put this book down! I've never been a big fan of Franken's, but he's a pretty good writer I'd have to say.

Franken goes after some of the big "talking heads" of the right -- Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity; he mentions Rush Limbaugh too, but he already devoted an entire book to him.

I think most will enjoy Franken's fictional Vietnam story. I haven't laughed that well in a while! The "Supply Side Jesus" made some good points too.

Of course, the main thrust of the work was to expose how right-wing pundits aren't 'purveyors of truth'. Franken is at his best in dissecting the statements of Sean Hannity, the over-the-top hysterics of Ann Coulter, and the 'spin' that Bill O'Reilly actually puts into his show. I would certainly recommend this book to fans of these three -- if only to discover how you're being taken.

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Summary: Leave Franken alone!!
Review: This book is first off, very funny and very informative. I've read other reviews on this book, and I have made some conclusions. That most of the people who hated this book are people who had different opinions than Al does (thats no surprise) Then they make a big deal that content in this book not hundred percent true. So what, its nothing different than what crap Bill O'Reily, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh put out. And lastly, If you knew that Al Franken was a liberal, and you the reader is a conservative and you know that both your and Franken's opinions are gonna be different, WHY READ THE DAMN BOOK? Overall, I loved the book, my father is a huge fan of his and I just got into reading his books with Why Not Me, and Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot. This book totally tells its reader what it needs to hear.

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Summary: Suggested reading for anyone who still thinks....
Review: This is a great book. True conservatives will agree that the corporate-owned media facade bombards us with distortions and lies propagated by the Straussian-influenced neo-liberals (neocons) . The media used to be like a fourth branch of government; a check and balance, a call for accountability and accuracy of information. Now, with little exception, it is just a propaganda mechanism of questionably elected or appointed shills. Do yourself a favor and flip off Fox News.

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Summary: This book has been DEBUNKED and DISCREDITED.
Review: www.frankenlies.com ... Franken targets conservatives who may not have gotten all of their facts straight, but in doing so, HE IS FACTUALLY DISHONEST HIMSELF!!! Franken's presentation has been discredited. Harvard should be ashamed. Go ahead. See for yourself: www.frankenlies.com