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Remember when Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet? But wait…did you actually
hear him say that or see that claim in something he wrote? Or
did you just hear it
second-hand from someone in the media, along with all
the other celebrated examples of
Gore’s exaggeration and boasting?
This example gives us the main point of
Al Franken’s new book, Lies and the
Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced
Look at the Right. Franken
points out that Gore was one of the first members of
Congress to see the
potential of the infant Internet in the 1980s and was instrumental
in getting federal funding to expand this new communication medium. Then, in 1999, Gore
said “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating
the Internet.”
Republican press releases then accused Gore of dishonestly
claiming to have
“invented” the internet–conveniently omitting the context that Gore
was
speaking about his role in funding the Internet. The mainstream media
then
picked up the story and used it as part of a multitude of stories questioning
Gore’s honesty about his own accomplishments.
Franken uses the
Gore-Internet example as one of many to show that the commonly
held belief that we
have a liberal media is, in truth, the opposite of reality. The media actually leans much
further toward the conservative end of the political spectrum in the way it covers
American political processes and policies.
Franken’s book eloquently and
comprehensively explains the mechanics of the conservative media slant. First, someone in
the extreme right wing makes a claim that is exaggerated, slanted, out of context, or (as
the title of his
book states) simply a lie. The lie gets repeated, emphasized, and
expanded by the right wing until the mainstream media considers it newsworthy enough
to
cover. But the mainstream media’s slant toward sensationalism, ratings, and scoops
puts their focus on the titillating aspects of the lie, rather than researching the lie
to unearth the facts behind it.
And all of this leads to a mainstream
media that gives the American people
the impression that Al Gore made up stuff to toot
his own horn — when he
actually didn’t — a fact that gets buried by a
lie.
Franken names the right wing media liars throughout the book. Most
prominent among them are Bill O’Reilly (lying bully), Sean Hannity (lying idiot), Ann
Coulter (lying nutcase), just about everybody at Fox News Network, The Washington
Times, The New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal editorial pages
(liars with the money and outlets to spread their lies), and, of course, Rush
Limbaugh
(lying blow-hard). Through dozens of well-researched examples,
Franken traces the
origins of their lies back to the facts, then follows the
evolution of their lies as
they become accepted into the mainstream media.
The American political
scene would be bad enough with just these right-wing
media hacks poisoning the minds
of voters, but Franken shows that that’s not where the lying ends. Our own elected
officials and their appointees serve up big slices of the dishonesty pie themselves. Vice
President Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich, and presidential advisor Karl Rove are unmasked for their manipulations of the
truth.
One (sort of) elected official gets special attention for his
lies:
President George W. Bush himself. Franken exposed Bush’s ongoing deceit
on
issues such as his religious convictions, his past drug and alcohol use, the
military, taxes, Clinton’s record, and the environment. He even brings up an interesting
case where Bush lied about a campaign statement he made indicating he would not put the
nation back into deficit spending (which he has) except in the case of a bad economy,
war, or emergency. Franken points out that, in fact, Bush never made this statement
during the campaign. Actually, Al Gore (the
right-wing’s example of dishonesty) said
it. Then even after Bush’s
dishonesty was revealed on national television, he
continued to tell the same lie.
Examples like these make this book a
treasure of information that goes
beyond the sound bite. My only complaint with
Franken’s earlier and somewhat similar book, the hilarious Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat
Idiot, is that it was about
25% informative nonfiction and 75% satirical humor.
That ratio is reversed
with Lies. While still a very funny book that continues
Franken’s trademark high-quality satire mixed with a sprinkling of crudeness,
Lies is at least 75% fascinating nonfiction. It has enough humor to keep readers
looking for the next joke and enough facts to satisfy their intellectual curiosity as
well.
You may have heard that Fox News actually sued to stop the release
of
Franken’s book based on their claim that they owned the rights to the
phase
“fair and balanced” in Franken’s subtitle. Of course, a judge quickly called
the suit “unworthy,” and Fox News dropped it. That should pretty much tell us everything
we need to know about the right wing media. Not only are they arrogant enough to claim
that they can own a common phrase, but they are shortsighted too. Franken’s book became
a runaway bestseller almost before it was released. Their lawsuit merely drew attention
to it. Arrogance and shortsightedness characterize the liars Franken exposes in his book
— liars who dishonestly smear liberal public servants, alienate
well-intentioned
moderates and conservatives, and insult the intelligence of the American people in
general.
So hats off to Fox News for getting more people interested in
reading an
excellent and important (not to mention hilarious) book. And hats off to
Al
Franken for hitting these bent-nail radical right-wing hatchet men and
women
squarely on their heads. He is an American patriot for holding up to
American
scrutiny the liars who wish to pollute the American political system.
