May 2006: Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (Franken)

Post date: Jan 07, 2010 8:42:19 PM

Many thanks to Ros for hosting us last-minute on May 18! Nancy, Maggie, and Jennie gathered in the evening light of Ros' coastal Alameda living room and talked about Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken.

We found that the writing was laugh-out-loud funny at times, and the research by the Harvard students, "TeamFranken," quite thorough. We found we didn't know much about Ann Coulter, who Franken lambasted throughout the book (she has written several books criticizing the "liberal left"), and there were several familiar points from Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas and George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant. Although Franken's book is based on facts, in careful response to lies he points out in conservative publications, but it is clearly for a left-wing audience. Bringing humor to the depressing progress of "liberal" body politic, Franken's book does start to reframe the debate, as Lakoff advises we must to really counter the careful phrasing that depicts even moderate citizens as "pro-death" and supporters of tax impediments.