false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175559915m/529255.jpg 23577 16 Having previously dissected the factual inaccuracies of a single bellicose talk show host in <I>Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot</I>, Al Franken takes his fight to a larger foe: President George W. Bush, the Bush Administration, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and scores of other conservatives whom, he says, are playing loose with the facts. It's a lot of ground to cover, as evidenced by the 43 chapters in <I>Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them</I>, but the results are often entertaining and insightful. Franken occupies a unique place in the modern political dialogue as perhaps the media's only comedy writer and performer who is also a Harvard fellow as well as a liberal political commentator. This unique and vaguely lonely position lends a charming quixotic quality to adventures such as a tense encounter with the Fox News staff at the National Press Club, a challenge to fisticuffs with National Review Editor Rich Lowry, and an oddly sweet admissions visit to ultra-conservative Bob Jones University (with a young research assistant posing as his son when Franken's real-life son refuses to participate in the charade). Less useful are comic book dramatizations of "Supply Side Jesus" and a fictitious Vietnam War story featuring the numerous righties who, Franken intimates, improperly avoided service. And Franken's criticisms of conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity, O'Reilly, and columnist Coulter, while admirable in their attention to detail, fail to shed much new light on people who have built careers on broad arguments and relentless self-aggrandizement. But Franken is at his best, and most compellingly readable, when he backs off the wackiness and the personal grudges and writes about more personal matters such as the political circus surrounding the memorial service of the late Senator Paul Wellstone. But even on these more serious topics, Franken's wit is still present and, in fact, grows sharper. In a time when much political discourse is composed of rage and shouting, it's refreshing that Al Franken is able to shout in a witty manner. <I>--John Moe</I> 344426 2003 Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right total:4978|5:35|4:62|3:53|2:6|1:4| 4978 19136 5800 452 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 4 6 false Thu Nov 13 19:51:47 -0800 2008 Wed Jul 15 05:12:08 -0700 2009 As you may know, the Fox Network went after Franken for trademark infringement because he used the phrase "fair and balanced." The judge threw out the...more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 4 5 false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Thu Oct 25 22:25:53 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 27 20:03:33 -0700 2007
1) Definitely one of the funniest book titles I've ever seen

2) Remember when, for years after 9/11, so many media and entertainment figures held themselves back from criticizing Bush administration? Al broke the silence quite a bit with this book, which...more...]]> 50904 0681570148 122 9 3.84 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50904.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 5 4 false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sat Sep 22 09:26:45 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 02:47:40 -0700 2007 more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 5 3 false Fri Sep 28 12:52:45 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 28 13:02:37 -0700 2007 I know the subtitle's supposed to be a joke, but this book is WAY ...more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 3 4 false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 23 18:50:47 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 23 18:57:50 -0800 2007 more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 3 3 false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 25 16:10:41 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 25 16:10:41 -0800 2008 more...]]> 827809 0713997907 9780713997903 6 3 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178733404m/827809.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/827809.Lies 4 1 false Sun Aug 06 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Thu Jan 31 06:35:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 09 05:09:41 -0800 2008
It's entertaining because Franken is a funny guy. He takes the same material that a hundred other writers have gone through - the hypocrisy of the media, the deliberate distortion of the truth, the greedy, grubby litt...more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 4 1 false Thu Jan 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 09:58:53 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 09:59:12 -0800 2008 more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 5 1 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Mar 21 05:14:53 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 21 05:32:39 -0700 2008
Franken breaks down the agenda and the lies of these folks in a humorous yet honest and actuall...more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 4 1 false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sun Aug 31 07:04:49 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 31 07:11:45 -0700 2008
Irrefutably and exhaustively footnoted, this is a smack in the face to the conv...more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 3 1 false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Dec 22 11:05:29 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 22 11:13:09 -0800 2007 more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 5 1 false Fri Sep 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 23 16:03:47 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 30 05:28:29 -0700 2008
The title, alone, won my heart with its teasing reference to Fox News' "...more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 5 1 false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Fri Aug 10 14:41:10 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 14:42:00 -0700 2007 more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 3 1 false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Thu Jun 28 20:16:41 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 05 16:20:53 -0800 2008 Al Franken is certainly biased, but way more importantly, he's funny. Very funny. And he gets what so many people who write books about current politics don't get: you're not going to change anyone's mind, because no one who disagrees with you is going to buy your book, and it will be outdat...more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 1 2 false Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Sat Mar 07 13:09:52 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 13:10:06 -0800 2009 more...]]> 77075 0525947647 9780525947646 433 42 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170899888m/77075.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77075.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 4 0 false Wed Dec 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 31 20:26:04 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 31 20:32:38 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 50904 0681570148 122 9 3.84 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50904.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 5 1 false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 17:34:27 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 17:34:27 -0800 2007 more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 4 0 false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 12:30:49 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 15:34:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 23577 0452285216 9780452285217 4273 380 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167428288m/23577.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23577.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 5 0 false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Nov 30 08:52:12 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 30 08:52:36 -0800 2008 more...]]> 77075 0525947647 9780525947646 433 42 3.84 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170899888m/77075.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77075.Lies_and_the_Lying_Liars_Who_Tell_Them_A_Fair_and_Balanced_Look_at_the_Right 3 1 false Sat Jan 31 10:12:09 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 20:58:23 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=529255