Having previously dissected the factual inaccuracies of a single bellicose talk show host in Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, 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 Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, 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. --John Moe


From AudioFile
Doctrinaire right-wingers may hate and even avoid this examination of contemporary political conservatism, but they shouldn't. There's something important to learn here--not so much about antiliberal perfidy, as the author intends, but about the tricks used in political discourse by liars of all persuasions. In addition to large dollops of sarcasm and irony, Franken uses thorough research and common sense to uncover spin, half-truths, and downright fibs that TV, politicians, and the press feed us every day. If you've seen him on the tube, you know his sound, which either you like or you don't. Unlike other comics who read their own books (for example, Whoopi Goldberg and George Carlin), Franken has not stiffened up at the microphone. In fact, his energy and spontaneity don't flag anywhere in the 10-hour recording. Occasional readings by actor friends are a welcome addition to the printed text. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
It's one thing to read about right-wing lies from the likes of journalist Eric Alterman and Joe Conason but quite another to hear the inconsistencies and twisted rhetoric filtered through the satiric brain of Al Franken. True, much of the material covered in all these books is the same--or, as Franken puts it in his acknowledgments, "Eric Alterman, thanks for writing a book on bias I could just put jokes to." But it's Franken's take on it that is so delicious. Unlike his more serious fellow writers, he does not feel compelled toward civility or decorum. Hence his chapter title: "Ann Coulter: Nutcase," or the next chapter: "You Know Who I Don't Like? Ann Coulter." And although personal attacks abound--"Bill O'Reilly: Lying, Splotchy Bully"--there's plenty of real talk about really serious stuff. Only Franken makes it funny. For instance, he deftly proves, with help from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, how Al Gore was steamrollered by the "liberal" press in the 2000 election; reveals the lies made by the Right about the Paul Wellstone memorial; and explains about as clearly as anyone how the Bush tax cuts work and whom they benefit. Even the chapters that don't quite work--Franken trying to get a fake son into Bob Jones University--evoke a few smiles. Expect big word of mouth on this one, which was rushed into print early to capitalize on the quickly rejected suit filed by Fox News against the book's title and cover design. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


The Washington Post
This book is laugh-out-loud funny.


The Onion
[A] heady mixture of scathing humor and righteous indignation.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Al Franken, one of our ￯﾿ﾽsavviest satirists￯﾿ﾽ (People), has been studying the rhetoric of the Right. He has listened to their cries of ￯﾿ﾽslander,￯﾿ﾽ ￯﾿ﾽbias,￯﾿ﾽ and even ￯﾿ﾽtreason.￯﾿ﾽ He has examined the Bush administration's policies of squandering our surplus, ravaging the environment, and alienating the rest of the world. He's even watched Fox News. A lot.

And, in this fair and balanced report, Al bravely and candidly exposes them all for what they are: liars. Lying, lying liars. Al destroys the liberal media bias myth by doing what his targets seem incapable of: getting his facts straight. Using the Right's own words against them, he takes on the pundits, the politicians, and the issues, in the most talked about book of the year.

Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always funny, Lies sticks it to the most right-wing administration in memory, and to the right-wing media hacks who do its bidding. conservatives have effectively used against Democrats... sharp analysis and humor. (Associated Press)

Author Biography: Al Franken is the #1 bestselling author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations; Why Not Me?; Oh, the Things I Know!; and I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me! In 2003, he served as a Fellow with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Note to Bill O'Reilly, the de facto publicist for Lies thanks to Fox News's hapless efforts to block its publication: Never say "Never said it" or "You can't find a transcript where I said it" when a man with 14 researchers is on your trail. In a book that baits its targets with varying degrees of success, Mr. Franken makes a bull's-eye out of Mr. O'Reilly. First the prize: he shows how Mr. O'Reilly's erroneous claim that he won a Peabody Award evolved into even bigger fibs once it was challenged. — Janet Maslin

The Washington Post

This guy Al Franken is nasty. He's mean. He's vicious. He is, in short, the perfect guy to write a book attacking America's nasty, mean, vicious right-wing pols, pundits and preachers. But Franken has something that his targets conspicuously lack -- a sense of humor. This book is laugh-out-loud funny. — Peter Carlson

Library Journal

Franken returns to the political arena with his best book yet. Along with the 14 Harvard students who make up "Team Franken," he employs a somewhat unique approach in writing this work: fact-checking and research to back up his satirical look at the right. The first major target he tackles is the myth that the media are liberal; a brief look at the 2000 presidential election debacle should be enough to convince most rational people to the contrary. Fortunately, Franken has many more examples. His appearances on C-SPAN have shown what happens when conservative talk-show host Bill O'Reilly tries to use his vocal bullying tactics on a professional satirist. The author covers this event and other media misrepresentations with wit and humor. The chapters on Bush's tax cuts, environmental record, and the ongoing war will help convince the listener that it wasn't just Al Gore who was bushwhacked in Florida. Sure to be a hit with Franken's many fans, this program is highly recommended for all libraries. For those not blinded by the right, this will serve as a wake-up call to look further than the local paper or TV news coverage for topics that matter.-Theresa Connors, Arkansas Tech Univ., Russellville Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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