Twentieth book I read since May 2008:
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
I enjoyed the book, though it didn't tell me a lot I didn't already know or suspect. Yes, the right-wing spin machine lies, bolstered by the middle-right mainstream media outlets and the conservatives who own and operate them. And yes, the lies can weaken freedoms and squelch debate here at home and support catastrophic foreign policy mistakes.
It was funny at times and informative all the time. I didn't care much for Franken's imagined comic book (Operation Chickenhawk -- starring the stars of the right wing who somehow got out of military duty); he was more pointed and funnier when he stuck to debunking the lies.
But what was missing was a solution to the problem of liars. The louder you denounce them, the more their lies are repeated by a media hungry to report on the fight. And the more you ignore them, the bolder they seem to become. All the while rationality dies a slow death at the hands of talk radio and screaming heads on television.
The solution might be to let both sides scream themselves silly and continually elect centrist politicians. And maybe someday, when the screamers realize the error of their ways, they'll join us in civil society again.
- Scott
12 years ago
