Try Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth by Joe Conason. I’m about half way through it and it’s pretty good so far.
Fair enough. I s’pose i’ve just become accustomed to this question being followed by accusations of “Democratic hypocrisy” or something similar, even when that is totally irrelevant to the debate.
It’s worth reminding some people on these Boards that there is not (yet) a law in American that says you have to be a Democrat or a Republican.
Eh, it’s only a paragraph. Here tis:
I seem to recall that in Lies… he again cites results from a preliminary study, but I could be wrong. I’m not about to dig through it to find out.
Pretty good book, though (although unfunny in some parts, particularly the Chickenhawk bit. That would have had more oomphf had Franken been in Vietnam, too.) Is there a thread out there devoted to his newest book?
Quix
Good question, but one for which I have no answer. Maybe the scorched-earth tactics of the “far right” have compelled serious “lefties” to stay in their ivory bunkers.
It would be preferable that the inanities spewed by some conservatives be refuted by serious scholars. But since that isn’t happening, thank God (Allah, Zeus, Frannie, whomever) for Al Franken!
Though maybe we don’t need the hotshots, since Franken is not only funny but dead on with his facts.
Thanks quixotic78
So, it’s Clinton’s fault for not taking care of Bin Laden before 9/11/2001, and it’s Clintons’ fault for playing “wag the dog” when he tried to take action against Bin Laden? What is this, the Karl Rove School of Choplogic?
And in any event, I don’t think a handful of cruise missiles is the same as stationing 180,000+ troops and starting a war. Unless I was napping when Madelyne Albright went before the UN and told horror stories about Saddam’s mobile weapons labs and remote-controlled drone planes…
Because “conservative humorist” is an oxymoron? 
(cf: Rush Limbaugh, Mallard Filmore, etc.)
It’s in that same thread I linked to. Franken says “Ditto” is this big self-aggrandizing thing that Rush does, when it’s really just shorthand.
You’ll find how Franken describes ditto in those first pages of the book available on line.
Franken also mentions that he didn’t actually listen to the show because he didn’t stand it, but says he’s not going to let that stop him from writing his book about it.
As I said, it seems toungue and cheek to me. It scares me that somebody would read the book as a serious tome of information to be relied on.
BTW, it’s pretty cool that Franken addressed his error in the second book.
Is he attempting to be much more serious in that second book?
Frankly, the humor’s not to my style. There’s a review on the amazon page to his second book that says it all:
Actually here:
(lot of reviews)
Hmmm sounds good. Amazon review raves, “wittier than Noam Chomsky!”
Franken’s book is political satire, not humor. There is a big difference.
I expect his book was “fact checked” pretty well prior to publication.
What I don’t understand is the lawsuit - who accomplished what beyond good publicity for the book?
Read P.J O’Rourke or Florence King and get back to us.
I was about to recommend O’Rourke myself, and i’m a raving lefty. Even if i don’t agree with all of his politics, some of his stuff is side-splitting. I think Parliament of Whores might be my favorite, although a couple of others come close.
I should add that, having read every book he’s ever written, and many of his essays from magazines etc., i’m finding that as he gets older, he’s getting more conservative and less funny.
Try taking a gander at his latest, The CEO at the Breakfast Table, or something like that. You will find that he has ceased to be even mildly amusing. Now he is just a short, grumpy, middle aged guy from Toledo. I wonder if losing his patron, Mr. Forbes, has something to do with his decline from humor and sharp observation to shrillness and an apparent serious hard on for Senator Clinton?
“When it’s really just shorthand”?
You lost me…
**
I read about half of a friend’s copy of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot about a year ago, and I seem to recall that he listened to Rush’s show a whole bunch (every day for several months, or something along those lines) while writing the book. But I might be getting him confused with someone else.
Anyone?
“Ditto” is supposed to mean “I agree with the previous caller’s comments about you.” “Ditto” is not supposed to mean “I agree with you.”
It’s an attempt to stop the incessant, “Oh, Rush, I just love you and listen to you every day…” that always seems to start calls.
Julie
I assume that Scylla’s characterizations refer to Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, because Amazon doesn’t show any preview pages for Lies:. I’m not aware that Franken characterized “ditto” as “self-aggrandizing,” nor as something that Limbaugh does – it’s something his fans do, “gleefully,” and I agree with that characterization.
The “I couldn’t stand listening to the show, but I won’t let that stop me,” is, I think, part of the conceit of the book; part of the parody, aimed at those conservatives who criticize, boycott, and agitate against books, movies, and TV shows sight-unseen – they “won’t look at that trash.” Instead, so Franken says, he makes his assistant listen to the show. I’m not sure the assistant exists, but either way, Franken sure had a lot of Limbaugh quotes in the book for someone who “never listened to it.”
BTW, does anyone else see this thread title and think “Alfrankenlied? Is that one of Wagner’s less-known works?”
I don’t know any Wagner work less famous than Hart to Hart.
And in Lies, Franken does admit to listening to Rush’s show a lot in preparation for that book, which is why he doesn’t listen to him much anymore, so I suspect that Rush quote was a joke.
Ok. I’m at the Amazon site for Rush’s first book.
In the preview pages there’s a book review:
-According to the review Franken offers no evidence that Rush Limbaugh is fat and contradicts himself calling rush alternately 300 pounds and 600 pounds.
That fact is Rush is not fat (but I guess at the time the book was out,)
-Apparently while discussing the Bell Curve Franke quotes the authors Murrary and Herrnstein as saying that Jazz is “Music created by morons.” Nowwhere in that 800 page book do they say that.
-On preview page 6 Franken Franken says “These are the fans who voluntarily-hell, gleefully call themselves “dittoheads” in honor of their ability to blindly and uncritically agree with everything that comes out of Limbaugh’s mouth.”
As has been previously note this is not at all what ditto or dittohead means, and is really a big error for somebody who claims enough knowledge of the show to write critically.
-On preview page 12 Franken goes on about the study already described. One can look at this preliminary study results cited by Franken and see how the differ from the actual results and decide for themselves whether it is credible that it is an honest mistake
-Oh and according to the review Franken says that is not an idiot (which is at odds with previous Franken statements.)
-Let’s see, he admits to a series of bald-faced lies in calling up political commentators under false pretenses (forgot which page, they take long to load so I’m not going back again.)
Umm Scylla, isn’t that book review at the beginning of the AMAZON preview a put on? Jeane Kirkpatrick? Then Franken claims they were lovers in his editorial reply? I thought the “review” was to make fun of people who would (deliberately or not) be wooshed.
Heh.