Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

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Language
  
English

Media type
  
Hardcover/paperback

OCLC
  
884599126

Author
  
Al Franken

Genre
  
Political satire

3.8/5
Goodreads

Publication date
  
2003

ISBN
  
9780452285217

Originally published
  
2003

Followed by
  
The Truth

Publisher
  
Dutton Penguin

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them t3gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcQGROwSHcM19DAcbV

Subject
  
American politics, American conservatism

Preceded by
  
Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations

Similar
  
Works by Al Franken, Humour books, George W Bush books

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a satirical book on American politics by Al Franken, a comedian and political commentator who later became a Democratic United States Senator from Minnesota. It was published in 2003 by Dutton Penguin. 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 and unsuccessful lawsuit, which has been credited with increasing the sales of the book.

Contents

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."

Summary

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them largely targets prominent Republicans 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, environmental, and military policies. Franken also criticizes several pundits, especially those he believes to be the most dishonest, including O'Reilly, Hannity, and Coulter.

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.

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 to dismiss its lawsuit.

Franken describes the legal battle in a paperback-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 Hill, 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."

Recognition

The audiobook version was awarded the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

Editions

  • ISBN 0-525-94764-7 (hardcover, 2003)
  • ISBN 0-452-28521-6
  • References

    Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them Wikipedia