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

From the Publisher

or the first time since his bestselling RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT IDIOT, Franken trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene. Now, the "master of political humor" (Washington Post) 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 Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes, the entire Fox network nor the Bush administration. This is the book Al Franken fans have been waiting for (and his foes have been dreading).

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.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Interviews & Essays
• Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Interviews & Essays

Barnes & Noble.com: This interview is taking place a little earlier than expected, due to Fox News's lawsuit against you and your book, Lies -- a lawsuit that not only failed to delay its publication, but dramatically increased its sales. How badly did Fox screw this one up?

Al Franken: Very badly. Fox News Channel chairman Roger Ailes had to know that this case was a loser from the beginning but gave in to placate an out-of-control commentator who was in an infantile rage. He clearly underestimated how foolish they'd look and the damage it would do to the network. Everything about the way they handled this thing only corroborates what I say about Fox in my book.

B&N.com: Left-wing pundit Joe Conason has suggested that Fox News should adopt a new motto, based on the judge's lawsuit in your favor: "Wholly Without Merit." What new motto would you recommend?

AF: The judge did say that it is unlikely that Fox's trademark "Fair & Balanced" is even valid. And he said their case was "wholly without merit both factually and legally." So Joe then suggested the "Wholly Without Merit" motto. I really can't beat that.

B&N.com: You had a now-legendary run-in with Bill O'Reilly earlier this year. Any chance O'Reilly will ask you onto his show to discuss your book?

AF: The event was the BookExpo in Los Angeles. Molly Ivins, Bill, and I were there to tell the booksellers about our books. I was promoting Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, and Bill was promoting his latest, Living with Herpes. Which, by the way, is very good. No, no. Actually, his book has another, even better, title.

Anyway, Bill forgot that it wasn't his show and went after me, so when it was my turn, I got up and told a story from my book that showed he was an egregious liar. Well, Bill went nuts, yelling "Shut up!" It was on C-SPAN, and someone said it was the most exciting C-SPAN since the impeachment. Anyway, Bill's tantrum eventually led to the lawsuit and to my being No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Chances that Bill will invite me on his show? I'd say small.

B&N.com: Ann Coulter's newest right-wing screed, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, is selling quite well at the moment. What's your take on her?

AF: While researching my book, I talked to a lot of conservatives. Almost to a person, when I brought up Ann Coulter, the next words out of their mouths were, "Off the record, there's something wrong with her." She is a thoroughly dishonest writer, but you should really read the two chapters about her in my book. Personally, I love my country. I will be doing my fourth USO Tour this Christmas when I go to Afghanistan and Iraq.

B&N.com: You assembled a large research team -- dubbed "TeamFranken" -- to help put your book together and to make sure you got your facts straight. Does Bill O'Reilly employ a similar team? If he did, what name would you give his team?

AF: I don't know if there is a "TeamO'Lie-lly." But if there were, I'm sure they'd all hate him.

B&N.com: O'Reilly's Fox News co-worker, Sean Hannity, also comes in for a fair amount of abuse in Liars. In your opinion, who's worse: Bill or Sean?

AF: Hard to say. They're different animals. Hannity is more the movement conservative who carries water for the cause. He lies a lot -- again, documented in my book -- but some of it might be stupidity. O'Reilly has an almost deluded self-image. He talks a lot about coming from poverty and likes to crow about his hardscrabble childhood in working-class Levittown, Long Island: "You don't come from any lower than I came from on an economic scale." In fact, he grew up comfortably middle-class in Westbury, Long Island, a completely different village than Levittown. O'Reilly, however, while clearly conservative, does not toe the party line as much as Hannity.

B&N.com: What's your favorite George W. Bush lie?

AF: I think "the trifecta." When his budget started going into deficit, Bush claimed to have said during the campaign that he would allow us to go into debt during a national emergency, a war, or a recession. "I guess I won the trifecta," he joked inappropriately and kept using the line at fundraisers. Both Tim Russert of NBC and the Washington Post found that he had never said any such thing [during the campaign]. One candidate did, however. Al Gore.

B&N.com: How complicit is the media in the right-wing lie machinery?

AF: The media has been cowed into letting the Bush administration and the right-wing media get away with this. They're so afraid of being called liberal, that they bend over backward. After 9/11, they completely lost their peckers. Read all about in my No. 1 bestseller, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

B&N.com: Has Bush used the country's anger and sorrow over 9/11 as justification for attacking Iraq?

AF: I think there was a case for the war with Iraq that could have been made, but Bush chose to mislead the American people into believing there was an imminent threat to us and a tie to al-Qaeda. If we continue to get mired down there, Americans are going to be a lot less forgiving than if he had been honest with us.

B&N.com: Is it true you had a run-in with Karl Rove at this year's White House Correspondents Dinner?

AF: I didn't have a run-in with Rove. We jibed each other a little. That doesn't mean I don't hate everything he stands for.

B&N.com: Do any of the current Democratic candidates for president excite you? Who would you like to see run, ideally?

AF: They all excite me. Actually, I think Bush can be beaten, and a number of these guys could do it. I think all of the top-tier candidates would make good presidents. I'd love to see Bill Clinton be able to run again, however. He'd squash Dubya. Actually, I had a plan to get around the 22nd Amendment. I run for president, Clinton for vice president, and as soon as I'm sworn in, I resign -- Clinton's president. It works. Read the amendment.

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