• Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

  • A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
  • By: Al Franken
  • Narrated by: Al Franken
  • Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (3,044 ratings)

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Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them  By  cover art

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

By: Al Franken
Narrated by: Al Franken
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Editorial reviews

Why we think it's Essential: Franken, the veteran comedian. Franken, the aspiring senator. Both are present in this sharp-tongued indictment of journalists, politicians, and our government. Depending on your political leanings, you'll revel in Franken's research and hoot over his humor, or you'll fume over his accusations and snarl over his exaggerations. Either way, he'll leave you howling! — Beth Anderson

Publisher's summary

Al Franken, "one of our savviest satirists" ( People), takes on the issues, the politicians, and the pundits in one of the most anticipated books of the year.

Once again, the author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene, leaving the powers-that-be in tatters and his audience in hysterics. Al Franken thrives on being in the opposition, and now that the Republican party controls both the Oval Office and Congress, the gloves are off and the satire is fast and furious.

Franken's specialty is using his targets' own words to make comedic and political points. Finding logical inconsistencies, factual errors, and doublespeak wherever he looks, Franken takes on and destroys the myth of liberal bias in the media, hoists the Bush White House on its own rhetorical petard, and punctures the mean-spirited sanctimony of such media darlings as Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and host of post-Limbaugh talk-radio gasbags. Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always uproarious, Lies is sure to raise hackles and spark hilarity inside the Beltway and from sea to shining sea.

Listen to Al Franken talk about Lies on Fresh Air from September 3, 2003.
©2003 AL Franken (P)2003 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

  • Grammy Award Winner, Best Spoken Word Album, 2003

"In the kicking, spitting spirit of all-star political discourse, Al Franken gives as good as he gets." (New York Times)
"Riotous...provocative reading for everyone.... Franken's sardonic critique of our culture of political disinformation is serious business." (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
"Memo to Fox: Hire Al Franken." (Business Week)

What listeners say about Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Accuracy can be fun

Many individuals believe the lies and see humor in many right wing commentators. I often fume when I catch an O'Reilly, Limbaugh and others in boldface lies in order to promote an agenda. They know the average devotee hasn't the patience, knowledge or desire to refute the lying liers. Franken had bright Harvard students at his disposal when he was a fellow at the college. Using his wit, intelligence and patriotism he has used well-researched refutations of lies and plain truth to tell "the HONEST side of the story." "Lies" is hillarious and a righteous antidote to the simplistic bombast of right wing liers. Our country needs MUCH more fine commentary like "Lies" as we enter an election year.

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250 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Thank you, Al Franken!

Al Franken has the courage to point out the outright lies told by the lying liars on the "fair and balanced" right. From O'Liely (Bill O'Reilly) to Hannity, Bush, Coulter, etc., etc., Al exposes the lies in a deliberate, highly referenced manner.. but with LOL jokes and puns throughout. Of course, I am not a republican. I'm not a democrat. I am, however, a person that is sick and tired of the right wing media and the sour economy.

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141 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Lies and the lying liars who tell them

This is a wonderful follow up to Rush Limbaugh Is A Big, Fat Idiot And Other Observations. It's wonderful to see Al Franken back at what he does best, using wit and ACTUAL FACTS to expose the level to which our national political discourse has fallen.

But Franken stumbles badly when his humor descends to the level of the people he criticizes. His Vietnam drama parody is tasteless and not worthy of him. Same can be said for the pranks he pulled at Bob Roberts University.

Still an eye opener and a wonderful read. I highly recommend this book.

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86 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Well-titled piece of junk.

While "Lies and the lying liars who tell them" stays true to its title by being full of lies and written by a liar, it is a dreadful book not worth anyone's time.

Readers who are likely to blindly believe any liberal rhetoric will love it. I advise those you who can think for themselves to steer clear!

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67 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

'Bout Damn Time!

I am a 30ish caucasian male. I am a husband and father. I own a home. I am military veteran. I am a small business owner. I hate paying taxes. I am, in other words, at the bullseye of the demographic target for Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and their ilk. As a member of that demographic, I state categorically that I love this book!

Al Franken is the voice of moderation, reason, and sanity in a media universe populated by cynical mouthpieces for the RNC and timerous mainstream editors and publishers who won't stand up to them, or stand up for the truth.

Unlike Limbaugh's cheap-spot left-wing doppelganger Michael Moore, Franken actually is "fair and balanced." His only agenda is truth and decency in reporting. You will revel in his witty destruction of the new media of slander, distortion, and intimidation led by Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Coulter, and Hannity.

Audible members: listen to this book and let the scales fall from your eyes!

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63 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Read this book BEFORE Ann Coulter's book...

If you do it the other way around, you'll be sorely disappointed when you get to Frankin. Frankin's ramblings and accusations pale in comparison to Coulter's meticulously cited dates, times, references and facts. You bet Ann Coulter and Fox News have a conservative bias, Al! Is this only a surprise to you?? Maybe your next shocking expose' ought to be a book exposing the fact that ex-NBA great Larry Bird is white!

The one thing Frankin misses is the fact that Fox News and Ann Coulter are both the leaders in their genre and Al is "still" the old Saturday Night Live guy who hasn't been able to make it in the movies or on TV. And with such a liberal bias entertainment industry on his side at that!

And if that's not bad enough, he has to either put the name "Rush Limbaugh" in his title, or a picture of Ann Coulter on his cover to sell his book. I can see why he's so bitter...

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43 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Oh please...

There are lies on all sides. When are we going to hear a liberal refuting all the lies that liberals in the media are spouting off. This is just more one sided trash. At least men like Rush Limbaugh & Glenn Beck have the guts to point out untruths on their own side and point out that we need consistency in what we say we believe. And whats this about "right wing media"? Where are you getting your news? Every network in the country makes a living off reporting every negative bit of news for the Bush administration & conveniently overlooking facts like Bush's aproval raitings being on the rise or the LACK of deaths in the Middle East. Dont come to me claiming to be the missionary of honesty until you're willing to clean your own house first.

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Franken's One Sided View

Honestly, Franken offers some great insight, some interesting ideas and is generally pretty funny. Though I know Franken has poked fun at the democrats and liberals in the past, this book is definitely written for liberals, so realize what you're getting. Conservatives and liberals have been calling one another liars for centuries. Chances are, if you're a conservative Republican, this book will just piss you off. If you're a liberal Democrat, this book will make you cheer and laugh out loud. Liberals enjoy! Conservatives enter with an open mind and light heart or look else where for your entertainment.

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Al Franken - More Than Fair To An Unbalanced Right

Judging by the squeals of the little piggies who got caught in the crosshairs of Al Franken's laser sharp wit, he must be right on target in this excellent and very amusing listen!

His take down of Fox News "Liar" Bill O'Reilly is total and complete. What ever journalistic credibility this obvious tool of the right ever enjoyed should be effectively wiped out by the truly fair and balanced telling of his fraudulent on air claims as they are laid bare in this book.

This riotous read is loads of fun. It's straight up BURSTING with well researched facts, figures and substantive proofs to support his arguments for every "lie" he expertly exposes to the brilliant glare of truth and daylight. Thank God for Al Franken and this masterful expose of the culure lies which underpin the polemics of the Right-Wing Media.

What a breath of fresh air it is to finally hear the author put the lie to that old "Liberal Media" saw. As Franken builds his case, it become brutally apparent that the right wing has employed an organized agenda to "Reclaim" the airwaves.

The thing is, the media in America has traditionally played it right down the middle. Since the 1980's, the actions of the Right Wing Media, Franken shows us, have taken the overall tone of the national media from the center and moved it farther to the right than ever before in our nation's history.

As we continue to be mired by an oil company administration's failed policies at home and abroad... and our young men and women continue to be placed in harm's way in armed support of those failed policies... I think it is more important than ever to remain undaunted in our vigilance of "media lies" and the pernicious propaganda they could represent. In it's worst employment it may be intended to sway us into the darker destruction of unending WAR.

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36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A thoroughly enjoyable

As what appears to be the first review of this audio book from a non-US reader, I have 4 things to say about "Lies...": 1) it is incredibly refreshing to get a perspective of US political discourse from an American author who can use both humour and intelligence to illustrate some of the clearly hypocritical and downright dishonest statements being published not only by the conservative media but also by the supposed mainstream media; 2) it is very unlikely that a rebuttal that Franken has lied in this book (see a few of the other reviews here) will ever be convincing as the very random review I made of his facts easily held up to my scrutiny; 3) I laughed out loud a lot while I listened to this book, which occasionally embarrassed me as it was sometimes in public and others looked at me strangely but which I take as a rounding endorsement of this book; 4) I found (and I swear that neither I nor anyone in my acquaintance is any way related to Audible nor am I benefiting in any way by saying this) that listening to the Audible version of this book was in all ways superior to the written version entirely due to the incredible way Franken is able to use inflection and accent to enhance the spoken version --- to add to this the Audible version of this book has actual audio excerpts of the Wellstone memorial service that made me extremely emotional.

Buy this book unless you are absolutely determined to be a closed minded conservative. If you are positively determined to be closed minded, then write some stupid comment in your review, and give this book only one star.

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32 people found this helpful