Excerpt from Book
1 Hummus Asking whether there is a liberal or conservative bias to the mainstream media is a little like asking whether al Qaeda uses too much oil in their hummus. The problem with al Qaeda is that theyre trying to kill us. The right-wing media tells us constantly that the problem with the mainstream media is that it has a liberal bias. I dont think it does. But there are other, far more important, biases in the mainstream media than liberal or conservative ones. Most of these biases stem from something called the profit motive. This is why we often see a bias toward the Sensational, involving Scandal, and, hopefully Sex or Violence, or please, please, pleeeze, both. And theres the Easy-and-Cheap-to-Cover bias, which is why almost all political coverage is about process and horse race and not about policy. Why have an in-depth report on school vouchers when two pundits whove spent five minutes in the green room looking over a couple of articles Xeroxed by an intern can just scream at each other about the issue on the air? Theres the Get-It-First bias. Remember the 2000 election? I believe there were some problems there associated with that one. Pack Mentality. Negativity. Soft News. The Dont-Offend-the-Conglomerate-That-- Owns-Us bias. And, of course, the ever-present bias of Hoping Theres a War to Cover. Does the mainstream media have a liberal bias? On a couple of things, maybe. Compared to the American public at large, probably a slightly higher percentage of journalists, because of their enhanced power of discernment, realize they know a gay person or two, and are, therefore, less frightened of them. By the same token, Ill bet the media were biased during the Scopes monkey trial. But they were professionals and gave the Noahs Ark side a fair shake. But to believe there is a liberal political bias in the mainstream media, youd have to either not be paying attention or just be very susceptible to repetition. Yes, weve heard it over and over and over again. For decades. The media elite is an arm of the Democratic National Committee. Anyone notice the mainstream medias coverage of Clinton? For eighteen months, it was all Monica, all the time. There were just a few news organizations that did not succumb to this temptation, and I like to cite them whenever I can: Sailing magazine, American Grocer Monthly, Juggs, and Big Butt (which is ironic, because I think Big Butt had a story). How about the 2000 presidential campaign? Remember in the first debate, Al Gore said he had gone down to a disaster site in Texas with Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt? Actually, it turned out that he had gone to that disaster with a deputy of James Lee Witt. As vice president, Gore had gone to seventeen other disasters with James Lee Witt, but not that one. The press jumped all over him. There were scores of stories written about how Gore had lied about James Lee Witt. It was as if James Lee Witt had been the most popular man in the United States of America and Gore was lying to get some of that James Lee Witt magic to rub off on him. Contrast that with the medias reaction to this Bush description of his tax cut in the very same debate. Bush said, I also dropped the bottom rate from fifteen percent to ten percent, because, by far, the vast majority of the help goes to the people at the bottom end of the economic ladder. By far, the vast majority . . . goes to the people at the bottom. That is what George W. Bush told America. The truth is that the bottom 60 percent got 14.7 percent. Gee, thats a pretty significant misstatement, dont you think? More important than whether a Texas fire was one of the seventeen disasters you went to with American icon James Lee Witt. So what was the reaction of the liberal mainstream press? Nothing. Do I believe that this was because the mainstream medMain Description
Al Franken, "one of our savviest satirists" (People), takes on the issues, the politicians, and the pundits in one of the most anticipated books of the year. For the first time since his own classic Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiotand Other Observations, Al Franken trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene. Now, the "master of political humor" (Washington Times) destroys the myth of liberal bias in the media, and exposes how the Right shamelessly tries to deceive the rest of us. No one is spared as Al uses the Right's own words against them. Not the Bush administration and their rhetorical hypocrisy. Not Ann Coulter and her specious screeds. Not the new generation of talk-radio hosts, and not Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes, and the entire Fox network. This is the book Al Franken fans have been waiting for (and his foes have been dreading). Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always funny, Liesis sure to become the most talked about book of political humor in 2003 and beyond.Review Quote
Funny, angry, and intelligent. (New York Times Book Review) [Franken] picks the scabs off every logistical inconsistency, factual error, or act of malice he can find in contemporary conservatism . . . A very funny book. (USA Today) Wickedly funny. (Newsweek) Knowledgeable and funny . . . [A] tough-minded look at politicians and the press. (San Francisco Examiner) A laugh-out-loud funny book . . . [Franken] fights fire with facts . . . his points are swiftly and deftly made, and his sense of humor about the current carnival of political grotesques is badly needed. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
For the first time since his own classic Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, Al Franken trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene. Now, the "master of political humor" (Washington Times) destroys the myth of liberal bias in the media, and exposes how the Right shamelessly tries to deceive the rest of us. No one is spared as Al uses the Right's own words against them. Not the Bush administration and their rhetorical hypocrisy. Not Ann Coulter and her specious screeds. Not the new generation of talk-radio hosts, and not Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes, and the entire Fox network. This is the book Al Franken fans have been waiting for (and his foes have been dreading). Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always funny, Lies is sure to become the most talked about book of political humor in 2003 and beyond.
Once again, the author of "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations" trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene, leaving the powers-that-be in tatters and his audience in hysterics.
Al Franken was born in 1951 and grew up in Minnesota. He got his start in show business in high school, when he began performing stand-up comedy. He attended Harvard University, but his comic talent went unrecognized by the school's famous Harvard Lampoon, which rejected him. Undaunted, Franken continued to do stand-up with a friend from high school, Tom Davis. Franken and Davis became celebrities when Lorne Michaels discovered their act and hired them for his new show, Saturday Night Live. In addition to doing the stand-up, Franken wrote many funny skits, including Chevy Chase's famous Gerald Ford bits, and created memorable characters like Stuart Smalley. Franken's ability to write comedy translated into a best-selling success with his political satire, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot. The book has sold almost one million copies.