Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears and Deceives Review
Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears and Deceives Overview
Al Franken was a "nobody" in the arena of political punditry before he wrote two best-selling books, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. Now one of the most prominent figures on the liberal Air America radio network, formed to counter the mostly conservative voice of mainstream talk radio, he consistently boasts "I tell the truth" and "I hold myself to an impossibly high standard when it comes to telling the truth."
Until now, says Alan Skorski, Franken's continuous smears against his enemies while promoting himself as the "ultimate truth teller" have gone unchallenged by the mainstream media. Surprisingly, even conservative or right-leaning media have not challenged the falsity of much of what he says, although Franken does not define what he believes is a lie, except to say that conservatives "get away with it." In contrast, Skorski defines a lie as "intentionally telling an untruth with the purpose of trying to cover up or get away with something," which he then accuses Franken of doing with impunity.
Alan Skorski has researched the facts regarding the allegations in Franken's last two books, monitored his daily radio show, spoken with people cited and referenced in Franken's books, and exchanged approximately 30 e-mails with Franken in order to provide readers with an accurate insight into how Franken thinks and operates. What Skorski finds is something very different from what Franken claims, and he concludes that, unlike many of the petty "lies" Franken writes about in his books—whether Bill O'Reilly's Inside Edition show won a Peabody or a Polk award or whether Ann Coulter said that she and Franken were "friendly"—...Pants on Fire reveals that Franken himself regularly lies, smears, and distorts what others say and do, ultimately discrediting himself as a "truth teller."
Indeed, according to Skorski, while Franken has called many people—from Rush Limbaugh and Brit Hume to President Bush—a "liar," "hypocrite," "cheater," "lazy," "shameless," and/or "dishonest," ...Pants on Fire amply illustrates not only that many of his claims are false but that Franken employs the very tactics he accuses the right of using.
