Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
Encyclopedia
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a satirical
book on American politics by comedian, political commentator and now Senator Al Franken
, published in 2003 by Dutton
, a subsidiary in the Penguin Group. Franken had a study group of 14 Harvard graduate students known as "TeamFranken" to help him with the research. The book's subtitle, "A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," is a parody
of Fox News' tagline "Fair and Balanced." Fox sued Franken over the use of the phrase in a short-lived lawsuit
, which has been credited with increasing the sales of the book.
Lies is one of several books published in 2003 written by American liberals
challenging the viewpoints of conservatives
such as Bernard Goldberg
, Bill O'Reilly
, Sean Hannity
and Ann Coulter
. These books by Franken and fellow authors such as Joe Conason
, Michael Moore
and Jim Hightower
were described by columnist Molly Ivins
as the "great liberal backlash of 2003."
and conservatives, highlighting what Franken asserts are documentable lies in their claims. A significant portion of the book is devoted to comparisons between President
George W. Bush
and former president Bill Clinton
regarding their economic
, environment
al, and military
policies. Franken also criticizes several pundits, especially those he believes to be the most dishonest, including O'Reilly, Hannity, and Coulter.
In Lies, Franken divides American media into two groups: the mainstream media, which attempts to be objective
, and the right-wing media, which does not. "The mainstream media", Franken wrote, "does not have a liberal bias, ABC
, CBS
, NBC
, CNN
, The New York Times
, The Washington Post
, TIME
, Newsweek
, and the rest at least try to be fair." Franken notes that, while the mainstream media do have biases toward sensationalism, the easy story, and soft news, the right wing media, including Fox News, The Washington Times
, and the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal
, "are not interested in conveying the truth." He argues that they exist to further the cause of American conservatism
by advancing stories and themes that work to the benefit of conservatives and to the detriment of liberals.
Franken seeks to debunk the claim that the mainstream American media are liberally biased. Franken believes that the claim of media "liberal bias" is a myth used by conservative politicians. Propagating this myth, Franken asserts, serves three functions. First, it creates reluctance among mainstream media outlets to cover issues that conservatives don't want them to, for fear that they will be accused of having a liberal bias. Second, it allows conservatives to deny or dismiss reports in the mainstream media, regardless of whether they are true, because they have discredited the source already. Third, attacking the media can be effective at increasing conservative voter turnout.
The book criticizes several conservative authors and pundits by pointing out factual inaccuracies and deceptive statements he says they have made. Franken criticizes Ann Coulter
on a number of points related to what Franken alleges as abuses or violations of journalistic ethics in her book Slander. In addition to accusing her of lying, Franken accuses Coulter of deliberately misusing citations in order to further a misleading political agenda. Coulter, when challenged on the accuracy of statements within the book, frequently said that Slander had 780 footnotes. Franken points out that merely having 780 citations makes readers less likely to actually check them. He also notes that Coulter's citations are not footnotes in a literal sense, but rather endnotes, which are located at the end of the book rather than the foot of the page. Readers, Franken contends, are far less likely to refer to endnotes. To attempt to prove this point, Lies has two endnotes, one of which merely notes how hard the endnotes were to find. Franken also cites instances where Coulter misuses her citations to attribute offensive or outlandish statements to people who did not make them.
Franken also criticizes former CBS
reporter Bernard Goldberg
for what he claims is selective decontextualized quoting and other dishonest material in his book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News
. Franken recounts an incident on Phil Donahue
's talk show on MSNBC
when he confronted Goldberg about a misleading quote attributed to NBC
anchor and commentator John Chancellor
.
The book also criticizes Bill O'Reilly, with whom Al Franken has a public feud. Franken accuses O'Reilly of being a serial and pathological liar, recounting multiple controversies relating to O'Reilly, including O'Reilly's inaccurate statements regarding Peabody awards, his heated interview with Jeremy Glick, and his boycott of Pepsi
for hiring rap
artist Ludacris
. Franken pokes fun at O'Reilly for moralizing about the sexually explicit and violent themes of Ludacris' songs despite having himself written a book, Those Who Trespass
, which contains violent and sexual imagery and profanity. Franken also recounts his heated confrontation with O'Reilly at BookExpo America 2003, seen on C-SPAN
.
He goes on to talk about a number of factual innacuracies in Sean Hannity's book Let Freedom Ring
and, when referring to Hannity's "partner" on his Fox news show, Alan Colmes
, always prints the latter's name in a small font
in order to emphasize the diminutive (usually silent, frequently interrupted) role he plays on the show.
He then argues, extensively, that the Bush administration projected blame for 9/11 terrorist attacks onto the Clinton administration--when, Franken demonstrates, Clinton did more than any other pre-9/11 president to fight terrorism--and Osama bin Laden
in particular--and it was the Bush administration which failed to heed Clinton's warnings and to prevent the attacks. He also gives Bill Clinton's military decisions most of the credit for Bush's (then-apparent) victories in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He also talks about "the tone" in Washington that Bush promised in 2000 to change, saying that it was created by the Republicans--and could be traced to an obscene remark by Richard Mellon Scaife
to a reporter, who had grilled him on his connections to conservative organization, in 1981--and it only got worse after Bush took office. He comments that he "grows discouraged" after seeing the Bush administration and Republicans politicize 9/11--including draft dodger
Saxby Chambliss
's defeating in 2002 of Vietnam veteran
, and triple amputee, and Senator Max Cleland
by attacking the latter's patriotism
.
He also has a chapter on the environmental impact of factory farms and how it reflects on Bush's environmental record.
The book also features a number of unrelated essays:
There are 2 comic book
-style chapters:
In the lawsuit, Fox described Franken as "intoxicated or deranged" as well as "shrill and unstable." In response, Franken joked that he had trademarked the word "funny", and that Fox had infringed his intellectual property rights by characterizing him as "unfunny." The publicity resulting from the lawsuit propelled Franken's yet-to-be-released book to #1 on Amazon.com
.
On August 22, 2003, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin
denied Fox's request for an injunction to block the publication of Franken's book, characterizing the network's claim as "wholly without merit, both factually and legally." During the judge's questioning, spectators in the court's gallery frequently laughed at Fox's case. Franken later joked, "Usually when you say someone was literally laughed out of court, you mean they were figuratively laughed out of court, but Fox was literally laughed out of court." Three days later, Fox filed papers to drop its lawsuit.
Franken describes the legal battle in a paperback
-only chapter of Lies entitled "I Win".
, reviewer Mary Lynn F. Jones wrote: "Franken's tendency to mix fact with fiction [also] left me wondering sometimes what was true and what wasn't." As an example, she cited a passage in Franken's book in which he wrote that former Bush
foreign policy advisor Richard Armitage
"bolted" from a Senate
hearing and "[knocked] over veteran reporter Helen Thomas
, breaking her hip and jaw". The paperback
version has a footnote saying, "The Helen Thomas thing is a joke."
Grammy Award
for Best Spoken Word Album
.
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
book on American politics by comedian, political commentator and now Senator Al Franken
Al Franken
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party....
, published in 2003 by Dutton
E. P. Dutton
E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. In 1986, the company was acquired by Penguin Group and split into two imprints: Dutton Penguin and Dutton Children's Books.-History:Edward Payson Dutton founded...
, a subsidiary in the Penguin Group. Franken had a study group of 14 Harvard graduate students known as "TeamFranken" to help him with the research. The book's subtitle, "A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," is a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Fox News' tagline "Fair and Balanced." Fox sued Franken over the use of the phrase in a short-lived lawsuit
Fox v. Franken
Fox News Network, LLC, v. Penguin Group , Inc., and Alan S. Franken was a civil lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 7, 2003...
, which has been credited with increasing the sales of the book.
Lies is one of several books published in 2003 written by American liberals
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
challenging the viewpoints of conservatives
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
such as Bernard Goldberg
Bernard Goldberg
Bernard Richard Goldberg , also known as Bernie Goldberg, is an eleven-time Emmy Award-winning American writer, journalist, and political commentator...
, Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)
William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist and political commentator. He is the host of the political commentary program The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, which is the most watched cable news television program on American television...
, Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity,...
and Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter
Ann Hart Coulter is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events...
. These books by Franken and fellow authors such as Joe Conason
Joe Conason
Joe Conason is an American journalist, author and political commentator. He writes a column for the weekly New York Observer newspaper, for Salon.com and has written a number of books, including Big Lies , which addresses what he says are myths spread about liberals by conservatives.-Life and...
, Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
and Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower
James Allen "Jim" Hightower is an American syndicated columnist, activist and author.-Life and career:Born in Denison, Texas, Hightower came from a working class background. He worked his way through college as assistant general manager of the Denton Chamber of Commerce and later landed a spot as...
were described by columnist Molly Ivins
Molly Ivins
Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins was an American newspaper columnist, populist, political commentator, humorist and author.-Early life and education:Ivins was born in Monterey, California, and raised in Houston, Texas...
as the "great liberal backlash of 2003."
Summary
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them largely targets prominent RepublicansRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
and conservatives, highlighting what Franken asserts are documentable lies in their claims. A significant portion of the book is devoted to comparisons between President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and former president Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
regarding their economic
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
al, and military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
policies. Franken also criticizes several pundits, especially those he believes to be the most dishonest, including O'Reilly, Hannity, and Coulter.
In Lies, Franken divides American media into two groups: the mainstream media, which attempts to be objective
Objectivity (science)
Objectivity in science is a value that informs how science is practiced and how scientific truths are created. It is the idea that scientists, in attempting to uncover truths about the natural world, must aspire to eliminate personal biases, a priori commitments, emotional involvement, etc...
, and the right-wing media, which does not. "The mainstream media", Franken wrote, "does not have a liberal bias, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, and the rest at least try to be fair." Franken notes that, while the mainstream media do have biases toward sensationalism, the easy story, and soft news, the right wing media, including Fox News, The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
, and the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, "are not interested in conveying the truth." He argues that they exist to further the cause of American conservatism
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
by advancing stories and themes that work to the benefit of conservatives and to the detriment of liberals.
Franken seeks to debunk the claim that the mainstream American media are liberally biased. Franken believes that the claim of media "liberal bias" is a myth used by conservative politicians. Propagating this myth, Franken asserts, serves three functions. First, it creates reluctance among mainstream media outlets to cover issues that conservatives don't want them to, for fear that they will be accused of having a liberal bias. Second, it allows conservatives to deny or dismiss reports in the mainstream media, regardless of whether they are true, because they have discredited the source already. Third, attacking the media can be effective at increasing conservative voter turnout.
Ann Coulter
Ann Hart Coulter is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events...
on a number of points related to what Franken alleges as abuses or violations of journalistic ethics in her book Slander. In addition to accusing her of lying, Franken accuses Coulter of deliberately misusing citations in order to further a misleading political agenda. Coulter, when challenged on the accuracy of statements within the book, frequently said that Slander had 780 footnotes. Franken points out that merely having 780 citations makes readers less likely to actually check them. He also notes that Coulter's citations are not footnotes in a literal sense, but rather endnotes, which are located at the end of the book rather than the foot of the page. Readers, Franken contends, are far less likely to refer to endnotes. To attempt to prove this point, Lies has two endnotes, one of which merely notes how hard the endnotes were to find. Franken also cites instances where Coulter misuses her citations to attribute offensive or outlandish statements to people who did not make them.
Franken also criticizes former CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
reporter Bernard Goldberg
Bernard Goldberg
Bernard Richard Goldberg , also known as Bernie Goldberg, is an eleven-time Emmy Award-winning American writer, journalist, and political commentator...
for what he claims is selective decontextualized quoting and other dishonest material in his book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News
Bias (book)
Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News is a non-fiction book by Bernard Goldberg, a 28-year veteran CBS news reporter and producer, giving detailed examples of what he calls liberal bias in television news reporting...
. Franken recounts an incident on Phil Donahue
Phil Donahue
Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...
's talk show on MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
when he confronted Goldberg about a misleading quote attributed to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
anchor and commentator John Chancellor
John Chancellor
John William Chancellor was a well-known American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News...
.
The book also criticizes Bill O'Reilly, with whom Al Franken has a public feud. Franken accuses O'Reilly of being a serial and pathological liar, recounting multiple controversies relating to O'Reilly, including O'Reilly's inaccurate statements regarding Peabody awards, his heated interview with Jeremy Glick, and his boycott of Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
for hiring rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
artist Ludacris
Ludacris
Christopher Brian Bridges , better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings...
. Franken pokes fun at O'Reilly for moralizing about the sexually explicit and violent themes of Ludacris' songs despite having himself written a book, Those Who Trespass
Those Who Trespass
Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder is a 1998 novel by US television personality Bill O'Reilly. The story focuses on the revenge a television journalist exacts on network staff after disputes very similar to O'Reilly's real tensions with CBS...
, which contains violent and sexual imagery and profanity. Franken also recounts his heated confrontation with O'Reilly at BookExpo America 2003, seen on C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
.
He goes on to talk about a number of factual innacuracies in Sean Hannity's book Let Freedom Ring
Let Freedom Ring
Let Freedom Ring is an album by jazz saxophonist Jackie McLean, recorded in 1962 and released on Blue Note.McLean wrote three of the four compositions. "Melody for Melonae" is dedicated to his daughter , and appeared as "Melanie" on Matador, a later recording that he made with Kenny Dorham...
and, when referring to Hannity's "partner" on his Fox news show, Alan Colmes
Alan Colmes
Alan Samuel Colmes is an American radio/television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk...
, always prints the latter's name in a small font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
in order to emphasize the diminutive (usually silent, frequently interrupted) role he plays on the show.
He then argues, extensively, that the Bush administration projected blame for 9/11 terrorist attacks onto the Clinton administration--when, Franken demonstrates, Clinton did more than any other pre-9/11 president to fight terrorism--and Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
in particular--and it was the Bush administration which failed to heed Clinton's warnings and to prevent the attacks. He also gives Bill Clinton's military decisions most of the credit for Bush's (then-apparent) victories in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He also talks about "the tone" in Washington that Bush promised in 2000 to change, saying that it was created by the Republicans--and could be traced to an obscene remark by Richard Mellon Scaife
Richard Mellon Scaife
Richard Mellon Scaife is an American newspaper publisher and billionaire. Scaife owns and publishes the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. With $1.2 billion, Scaife, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, is No...
to a reporter, who had grilled him on his connections to conservative organization, in 1981--and it only got worse after Bush took office. He comments that he "grows discouraged" after seeing the Bush administration and Republicans politicize 9/11--including draft dodger
Draft dodger
Draft evasion is a term that refers to an intentional failure to comply with the military conscription policies of the nation to which he or she is subject...
Saxby Chambliss
Saxby Chambliss
Clarence Saxby Chambliss, Jr. is the senior United States Senator from Georgia. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a U.S. Representative ....
's defeating in 2002 of Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
, and triple amputee, and Senator Max Cleland
Max Cleland
Joseph Maxwell Cleland is an American politician from Georgia. Cleland, a Democrat, is a disabled US Army veteran of the Vietnam War, a recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valorous action in combat, and a former U.S. Senator...
by attacking the latter's patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
.
He also has a chapter on the environmental impact of factory farms and how it reflects on Bush's environmental record.
The book also features a number of unrelated essays:
- The practice of slanting news copy rightward at the Washington Times newspaper, called "Prudenizing" after the paper's executive editor, Wesley Pruden. Franken describes the concept in general terms and then tells a story of an instance where he was the one Prudenized: in a column by Bill McCaslon covering a 1999 photographers' association event where Franken was performing.
- A report from the 2003 White House Correspondents Association dinner, at which Franken "engage[s] in slightly hostile banter" with Defense Policy Board Advisory CommitteeDefense Policy Board Advisory CommitteeThe Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, also referred to as the Defense Policy Board is a federal advisory committee to the United States Department of Defense. Their charter is available online through the office of the Director of Administration and Management of the Department of Defense...
chairman Richard PerleRichard PerleRichard Norman Perle is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government, a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970’s...
, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl RoveKarl RoveKarl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul WolfowitzPaul WolfowitzPaul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
, Fox News' Alan ColmesAlan ColmesAlan Samuel Colmes is an American radio/television host, liberal political commentator for the Fox News Channel, and blogger. He is the host of The Alan Colmes Show, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show distributed by Fox News Radio that also airs throughout the United States on Fox News Talk...
and Brian KilmeadeBrian KilmeadeBrian Kilmeade a Fox News Channel television personality. Weekdays, he co-hosts Fox's morning show, Fox & Friends, along with Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson. Kilmeade also co-hosts Brian and the Judge, a talk-news radio show on Fox News Radio, with Judge Andrew P. Napolitano...
, and Secretary of Commerce Donald EvansDonald EvansDonald Louis Evans was the 34th U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He was appointed by his longtime friend George W. Bush and sworn into office on January 20, 2001...
. - The death and memorial service of Senator Paul WellstonePaul WellstonePaul David Wellstone was a two-term U.S. Senator from the state of Minnesota and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Before being elected to the Senate in 1990, he was a professor of political science at Carleton College...
(D-MNMinnesotaMinnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
). Although it was billed as a memorial service and celebration of Wellstone's life, the few overtly partisan parts of a few eulogies were blown out of proportion by right-wing pundits, including Rush LimbaughRush LimbaughRush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
, Peggy NoonanPeggy NoonanPeggy Noonan is an American author of seven books on politics, religion, and culture and a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal...
, and Tucker CarlsonTucker CarlsonTucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American political news correspondent and conservative commentator for the Fox News Channel...
, an effect intended to create the impression that the event had been turned into a political rally for Wellstone's replacement on the ballot, former Vice President Walter MondaleWalter MondaleWalter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
. - "Fun With Racism", An essay on racismRacismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
in the Republican party, in which Franken postulates that the presence of black people in the Republican party serves not to appeal to black voters, but rather to white voters that wouldn't otherwise vote for an overtly-racist party. As evidence, he claims that every black Republican elected official in the United States got to speak at the 2000 Republican National Convention2000 Republican National ConventionThe 2000 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States convened at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 31 to August 3, 2000. The 2066 delegates assembled at the convention nominated Texas Governor George W. Bush as the Republican candidate for U.S....
in Philadelphia. He also points to an organization called the African-American Republican Leadership Council, which at the time featured almost no African-American members save for former Senator Edward BrookeEdward BrookeEdward William Brooke, III is an American politician and was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican from Massachusetts in 1966, defeating his Democratic opponent, Endicott Peabody, 60.7%–38.7%...
(R-MAMassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
), who said he was unaware that the group had named him its honorary chairman. - Franken and research assistant Andrew Barr travel to Bob Jones UniversityBob Jones UniversityBob Jones University is a private, for-profit, non-denominational Protestant university in Greenville, South Carolina.The university was founded in 1927 by Bob Jones, Sr. , an evangelist and contemporary of Billy Sunday...
, with Andrew posing as a prospective student and Al as a family friend, in order to ask embarrassing questions to the admissions staff, about such issues as BJU's former ban on interracial dating and its lack of accreditation. - "Abstinence Heroes", a pair of chapters on sex education. Although Franken starts by listing the evidence that abstinence-only sex education is ineffective at preventing teenage pregnancy and the spread of STDsSexually transmitted diseaseSexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
, he jokingly suggests that the real reason why abstinence-only sex education is ineffective is that abstinence is seen as "uncool". Seeking to fix this, Franken sends a letter to numerous political and media figures asking for abstinence-related anecdotes to be printed in a collection titled Savin' It! Not only did this stunt get no positive responses, Franken himself gets in trouble for sending the letters on Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
letterhead (as he was writing the book while serving as a fellow at Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy). - "The Waitress and the Lawyer", a one-act play set in a diner in TexasTexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, which features a conversation between a tax attorney earning $250,000 per year and a waitress earning $25,000 per year. The attorney explains to the waitress how the income tax cut she receives is more than offset by the reduced funding for other government programs such as SCHIP, subsidized housing, and public transportation. - "The No-Child-Left-Behind Standardized Test", which is presented in the style of a standardized multiple-choice exam, and which points out that the No Child Left Behind ActNo Child Left Behind ActThe No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...
actually leaves behind over 16% of American school children.
There are 2 comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
-style chapters:
- "The Gospel of Supply-Side Jesus"--parodying the seemingly un-Christian policies of Republicans who frequently invoke ChristianityChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. - "Operation Chickenhawk: Episode One"--which features Vietnam veteransVietnam VeteransThe Vietnam Veterans is an French psychedelic band, hailing originally from Chalon-sur-Saône, a commune in eastern France. They released six full-length albums during the 1980s, starting in 1983. The band was praised by many alternative music publications, including Bucketful Of Brains during the...
(and prominent Democrats) John KerryJohn KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
and Al GoreAl GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
leading a group of popular neoconservatives--none of whom actually served in the Vietnam WarVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
--into battle, only to get fragged by the cowardly "chickenhawkChickenhawk (politics)Chickenhawk is a political epithet used in the United States to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or other military action, yet who actively avoided military service when of age.The term is meant to indicate that the person in question is cowardly or...
" neocons.
Publicity
Fox News sought damages from Franken, claiming in its lawsuit that the book's subtitle violated its trademark of the slogan "Fair and Balanced". The lawsuit was dismissed, and the attempt backfired on Fox News in that it provided Franken with free publicity just as the book was launched. "The book was originally scheduled to be released Sept. 22 but will be made available Aug. 21," according to its publisher. "We sped up the release because of tremendous demand for the book, generated by recent events."In the lawsuit, Fox described Franken as "intoxicated or deranged" as well as "shrill and unstable." In response, Franken joked that he had trademarked the word "funny", and that Fox had infringed his intellectual property rights by characterizing him as "unfunny." The publicity resulting from the lawsuit propelled Franken's yet-to-be-released book to #1 on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
.
On August 22, 2003, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin
Denny Chin
Denny Chin is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was a judge on the United States district court for the Southern District of New York before joining the federal appeals bench. President Clinton nominated Chin to the district court on March 24, 1994, and...
denied Fox's request for an injunction to block the publication of Franken's book, characterizing the network's claim as "wholly without merit, both factually and legally." During the judge's questioning, spectators in the court's gallery frequently laughed at Fox's case. Franken later joked, "Usually when you say someone was literally laughed out of court, you mean they were figuratively laughed out of court, but Fox was literally laughed out of court." Three days later, Fox filed papers to drop its lawsuit.
Franken describes the legal battle in a paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
-only chapter of Lies entitled "I Win".
Difficulty posed by use of satire and nonfiction
In a largely favorable review of Franken's book in the Washington newspaper The HillThe Hill (newspaper)
The Hill, a subsidiary of News Communications Inc., is a newspaper published in Washington, D.C. since 1994.Its first editor was Martin Tolchin, a veteran correspondent in the Washington bureau of The New York Times....
, reviewer Mary Lynn F. Jones wrote: "Franken's tendency to mix fact with fiction [also] left me wondering sometimes what was true and what wasn't." As an example, she cited a passage in Franken's book in which he wrote that former Bush
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
foreign policy advisor Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage (politician)
Richard Lee Armitage, GCMG AC CNZM was the 13th United States Deputy Secretary of State, the second-in-command at the State Department, serving from 2001 to 2005.-Early life and military career:...
"bolted" from a Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
hearing and "[knocked] over veteran reporter Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas
Helen Thomas is an American author and former news service reporter, member of the White House Press Corps and opinion columnist. She worked for the United Press and post-1958 successor United Press International for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager...
, breaking her hip and jaw". The paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
version has a footnote saying, "The Helen Thomas thing is a joke."
Recognition
The audiobook version was awarded the 2004Grammy Awards of 2004
The 46th Grammy Awards were held on the February 8, 2004. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. The big winners were Outkast, who won three awards including Album of the Year & Beyoncé Knowles, who won 5 Awards...
Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Spoken Word Album
Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album
The Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album has been awarded since 1959. The award had several minor name changes:*In 1959 the award was known as Best Performance, Documentary or Spoken Word...
.