In his latest book, comedian turned activist Al Franken lands a solid blow on the chin of the Republican right. Stepping out from the left-wing corner, the author delivers a powerful one-two combination of well-researched facts and humour that manages to encourage readers to question what is served up as fact to them every day by their politicians and by the media.
With all the tenacity of a terrier, Franken takes a big bite into the likes of Fox News Channel (the right-wing network that has turned its back on the principles of objective news reporting), Anne Coulter (‘the reigning diva of the hysterical right’. Or rather, the hysterical diva of the reigning right’), Fox News Channel, Bill O’Reilly (‘lying, splotchy, bully’ and host of the right wing talk show The O’Reilly Factor), Rush Limbaugh and, of course, Fox News Channel.
His 33 week run on the New York Times bestseller list, on which Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is still ranked number six, along with the success of his previous book, Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot and Other Observations, has put the spotlight on Franken as a candidate for leading man of left. Air America radio, the fledgling leftwing network, has chosen him to top the bill with a radio programme in direct competition with Rush Limbaugh’s ultra-conservative programme.
Though Limbaugh has been a symbol of the American right for years, and hosts a radio show that brainwashes – sorry, attracts – 20 million listeners each week, he is but one player in the conservative right’s game. The owner and manager of Team Right would be Rupert Murdoch. In addition to owning Fox News Channel, he owns the largest group of television stations in the US, TV Guide magazine, 20th Century Fox and 130 English-language newspapers, including a good percentage of the UK media. With Murdoch -or any media conglomerate, for that matter – at the helm of such a large portion of the available information, the resulting media environment is one that stifles a healthy competition of ideas. To put it mildly.
To put it as Franken does, quoting from the Columbia Journalism Review: ‘He wields his media as instruments of influence with politicians who can aid him, and savages his competitors in his news columns. If ever someone demonstrated the dangers of mass power being concentrated in few hands, it would be Murdoch.’
What sets this work apart from similar attacks from either side like Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men or Anne Coulter’s Slander, is that it does not stoop to the level of trying to point out faults in the opposition’s case by using equally inaccurate arguments. Franken has set forth a syllabus for a course in media literacy. By outlining the methods through which he and his team of fourteen Harvard students, collectively known as TeamFranken , uncovered the truth behind lies and the lying liars who tell them, Franken makes it possible for the reader to continue to be a critical consumer of information.
Polarised party politics and their coverage in the media have been mounting throughout the past decade and have maintained a steady incline since the Clinton impeachment scandal. The Republican right has tried to make a case against the liberals, claiming they set the precedent for the mud-slinging battle that now dominates political debate and can best be compared to recess bickering between school children.
With chapter titles such as, ‘Bill O’Reilly: Lying, Splotchy Bully’ and ‘Anne Coulter: Nutcase’, Franken happily engages himself in the battle of insults, but ultimately puts forth the argument that President Bush need only look to his own party to follow through on his promise to ‘change the tone in Washington’.
Speaking of giving credit where credit is due, Franken delivers a brilliant articulation of the many achievements of the Clinton administration that conservatives in America have desperately tried to discredit by putting a spotlight on his personal life. Republicans have condemned Clinton’s stewardship of the military. It is therefore with great glee that Franken takes a moment to point out that it is, in fact, Clinton’s military that Bush has been so proud of in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And though many members of the hawk right would contend that liberals against the war hate America and the troops, Franken has been a part of several tours to military bases to entertain the troops. But since Bush and his buddies are a little thin in the war experience department, Franken has written a little story – complete with pictures – about what a tour of duty in Viet Nam might have been like for him and his draft-dodging crew. Contrary to what Bush and much of the American public might garner from watching Fox News Channel coverage of the war, it is not like a video game.
And sometimes, in their most shining moments of brilliance, the right even goes so far as to try to use statistics against Clinton that, in reality, actually proffer evidence that he was on the right track.
In Chapter 24, ‘Paul Gigot Is Unable to Defend an Incredibly Stupid Wall Street Journal Editorial,’ Franken hangs the Journal’s editorial page editor out to dry for citing a statistic that gun related violent crime has decreased from twelve percent in 1993 to nine percent in 2001 in hopes of proving that current Attorney General John Ashcroft’s policies are more successful than the gun control program administered by Clinton. However, to Gigot’s credit, he knew not to attempt to defend the editorial.
But Franken is merciful. While he happily relays many of his personal interactions to supplement his professional critiques of his opponents, he does recognize when it is appropriate to let people speak for themselves without his intervention. Case and point: Anne Coulter. She actually provided an entire book that so irked Franken that he dedicated at least three hilarity and frustration riddled chapters to it.
The great irony of Franken’s book is that much of the content should not be funny. There is a serious discrepancy between reality and what is paraded as truth in American politics. Most of the right, whether or not they were personally pinpointed, would happily dismiss this book as the rant of an insignificant comedian. Humour and objective facts are by no means the right’s strong suits. But it would be wishful thinking on their part to believe the arguments Franken makes will not weigh in heavily as the November election approaches. Many a true word are spake in jest, and Franken has utilized this weapon to a devastating effect.