Rating:  Summary: insightful if not pompous Review: This guy has something to prove - his exaggeration and claims of prescience are simply embarrassing.
Rating:  Summary: I've had a hard time liking Morris... Review: I've had a hard time liking Dick Morris in the past, partly because he was a pal of Clinton and one of his most trusted advisors, and I view Clinton with utter contempt. How any honest man could talk himself into working with Clinton, I cannot understand. Now he is a commentator on the Fox network, which is the least partisan of all the networks.
In this book, however, Morris makes some specific points about the elite media--pointing out for example that the New York Times has been acting as a propaganda arm of the Democrat party, often to the detriment of the country in general, with superb documentation, and naming many Hollywood leftists: "These icons of stage and screen,song and dance, are no longer content with making us tap our feet. They want us to change our minds. But they bring to their advocacy their old habits--they follow scripts. They are not intellectuals. They are actors, actresses, singers, and stars who are impersonating deep thinkers. The same skills they use to persuade us that their stage characters are really in love, or really locked in mortal combat, they now employ to try to convince us our country is going in the wrong direction. Their skills are formidable. But let's not forget the reality: These are human parrots, mouthing lines fed to them by the fashionable, social, trendy elite. Their information is as shallow as their conclusions are vacuous." Lord, how long I've waited to hear someone express that truth out loud! How could anyone take an airhead like Barbra Streisand or Sean Penn seriously about, say, foreign policy? But some do, simply because they play a good part on the screen which someone else has written, still another directed and yet another choreographed. Morris takes on the media types that think it is their job to form public opinion, rather than report it, and governors who use the tobacco "settlement" for everything but its intended purpose, which is to discourage smoking (from which, incidentally, government makes more per pack than do the tobacco companies, in taxes) and the crooked corporate CEO's. I am enjoying this book much more than I thought I would. Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret.) author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance and other books
Rating:  Summary: Someone from Fox complaining about biased news... Review: Quite possibly the most contemptible example of 'the pot calling the kettle black' that I've seen in a long time...
Rating:  Summary: A Very Disillusioned Child of The 60s Review: Born in 1942 I received my college education in the first half of the 1960s and my social education in the second half; returning from 2 years with the Army in South East Asia I encountered the new America: a moralistically and judgementally fixated nation that had little time for church sermons and its leadership, but much time for moralizing through the media, public demonstration, our politicians, and our arts. In a way our educated-sophisticated society had become "secular puritan" when it came to character.
John Naisbitt in "MEGATRENDS 2000" accurately prophesied the economic boom of the 1990s resulting mostly from technological advancement, and came to the conclusion (also correct) that we are becoming more and more a specialized society in America; each worker works on a narrower and narrower field, but you add up all the fields and workers and you get one great synergism. What he left out of his very prophetic work, and its index, are the critical societal glues ("integrity", "honesty", "character", "compassion", "humility","charity") without which all these specialties add up to ONE BIG TOWER OF BABEL. In school in the late 1950s, in English class, we studied word coloring in media, many ways to represent the same thing but eliciting different reactions; so I wasn't much surprised with "Off With Their Heads" treatment of The 3rd Estate. I remember our professor in 1958 stating that the 3 BEST national papers for REPORTING UNBIASED NEWS accounts were: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Christian Science Monitor. I'm glad he is not around any more to see the carnage that the "secular moralistic" Graduates of the 1960s have left in their wake as our present UPPER level EXECUTIVES. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS BY DICK MORRIS IS AN EASY 5 for me because it is prodigious, honest, accurate, and a "must have" reference book for anyone who gives a damn about America TODAY. In dealing with the nation's moral leaders (children of the '60s) he investigates 9 critical areas; Rated 5/5 Bill Schaefer Berwyn, PA.
Rating:  Summary: Playing both sides of the fence Review: Dick Morris once wrote that he was an independent-that he hated Republicans and Democrats equally. In this book, he takes aim at the liberals in the first part of the book and then hits the conservatives in the second part. In the first part of the book, he skewers The New York Times, liberal bias in the media, Clinton's sorry record in ignoring terrorism, leftist Hollywood, and everybody's favorite target, France. I found his writing here to be very informative, enabling me to understand the historical influence of the New York Times, and how media outlets all over the country (and the Democrats) still follow its drumbeat. He also has an excellent recap of the historical forces that have made the French psyche what it is today. He helped me understand why the French are the way they are (though he does not forgive them and neither do I). I was enlightened. However, the theme of the second part of the book is about the valuable and humanitarian service provided by courageous and altruistic tort lawyers in fighting the good fight against evil accountants and tobacco companies, and how we need to get them involved in the struggle against evil nursing home operators. (Another chapter deals with the wrongness of gerrymandering, but no lawyers get involved there). He spews anger at any person or body who would try to cap malpractice or punitive damage awards. He comes down hardest on the Big Tobacco companies, demonizing their pernicious effects by asserting fuzzy science facts like "one in three (kids who smoke) will die of the habit". (He cited the tobaccofreekids website as the source of that fact). He spends the first section of the book slamming the New York Times for being so slanted, and then uses The Times as a source numerous times to support his arguments in the second part of his book. As a conservative, I had to roll my eyes while reading through the end of the book, but I felt the knowlege and background Morris imparts early on made the book a worthwhile read for me.
Rating:  Summary: Off With Their Heads Review: Morris did a masterful job of research as well as sharing his personal experiences with recent events. For example, his analysis of the NY Times and how they manipulate polls to suit thier political bias was incredible. In addition, how Clinton could have stopped or at least slowed down the terrorism movement was appaling. How tobacco proceeds are being used for purposes other than the education of our youth was shocking. Finally, his description of what is going on in our nursing homes makes me hopeful I never have that horrible experience. This is a great book that really tied a lot of areas together. It was educational to say the least and is on my must read list.
Rating:  Summary: Rare insider insight Review: Unlike Hillary, who sees the Clinton years through rose-colored glasses thick as midnight, Morris's hindsight is a stark and clear. As a pollster himself, he debunks the way supposedly objective media giants bend the numbers to get the results they want. After reading this book, you'll understand why the New York Times was literally in-credible long before Jayson Blair. You see how entire strings of polls were weighted in favor of the liberal agenda plus being weighted against the Republican administration. The Times taught Blair how to write fiction, for Pete's sake. Morris stumbled his way out of the Clinton administration, falling on his face, getting up, and re-earning his reputation as an astute political observer. If you think this book is merely another conservative tirade in the vein of Ann Coulter, forget it. This guy shoots straight. And when the smoke clears, you're going to be skeptic about anything you hear on the network news and the NYT. This book is a grad course in how to read between the lines in the press to get at the truth. Off with their heads, Morris. Off with their heads. Now. When are you going to write the book that debunks Hillary?
Rating:  Summary: Splendid Morris Tirade Against American Traitors, etc. Review: If Amazon.com had the option of awarding books four and a half stars, I would certainly grant that to "Off With Their Heads", since it isn't nearly as well written as Dick Morris's political masterpiece "Power Plays". Nonetheless, it is still an important look at those who are critical of current American foreign policy in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His harsh criticisms of William Jefferson Clinton (I concur with most of his opinions, but would part company with Morris; in my opinion, Clinton's blatant disregard of terrorist activities borders perilously close to treason due to gross neglience on his part.), Hollywood liberals such as Streisand and Sarandon, and the media's portrayal of the wars against terrorism - including the still unfinished campaign in Iraq - are well reasoned and splendidly supported by ample facts. But his best critique is that of France's abysmal history of appeasement and cowardice; indeed he does a marvellous job questioning whether France should still be regarded as an ally of the United States. Morris tends to lose focus towards the end in confronting domestic malfeasance from the likes of corrupt businessmen and politicians, yet he offers an excellent, yet sobering, look at gerrymandering in the U. S. House of Representatives. And his examination of the legislation passed in Congress which paved way for the Enron collapse and other recent business scandals is equally compelling. Although "Off With Their Heads" isn't as compelling a read as "Power Plays", it is still a splendid tirade against those who are not working on behalf of the best interests of the United States of America.
Rating:  Summary: This American thanks you. Review: Someone finally has this mess our country has been dealing with right. Everyone has been yammering this and that about who to blame and Morris attacks them ALL(from media morons to political blunderers and corrupt corporations) brilliantly. Its not time to stop pointing fingers, its time to start lopping off heads.We've been walking around with blinders on ignoring what can be plainly pointed out in this book. Buy it, read it, and then, throw it at someone you know who buys into the media's propaganda-filled views, and tell them to read it.
Rating:  Summary: More Ammunition For the Intellectual Rearming of the Right Review: The author's unique qualifications and experiences inside the belly of the leftist Clinton Administration allow him to backup theories with real life experiences. His description of trade with the NY Times - they get an interview and Clinton gets a free pass on pre presidential activities destroys the illusion of balance in the NY Times. Morris goes on to show how the Times role as the flagship of the American press affects the morning paper delivered to your doorstep in Podunk . Certainly this book played a major role in the recent management purge at the NYT Morris lays bare the rise of terrorism in the US in a way that will be spin resistant as Tom D and his media friends attempt to escape from responsibility. In the process he exposes the greatest flaw of the Clinton administration, the inability or unwillingness to lead and plan for the future. A great read. Provides the required ammunition to counter the spin of the left.
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