Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
AuthorAl Franken
LanguageEnglish
SubjectAmerican politics, American conservatism
GenrePolitical satire
PublisherDutton Penguin
Publication date
2003
Media typeHardcover/paperback
ISBN9780452285217
OCLC884599126
320.9730207
LC ClassE885 .F728 2003
Preceded byRush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations 
Followed byThe Truth (With Jokes) 

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is a satirical book on American politics by Al Franken, a comedian, political commentator, and politician. 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.[1] The book's subtitle, A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, is a parody of Fox News' tagline "Fair and Balanced." FNC 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, an example of the Streisand effect.[2]

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."[3]

  1. ^ Hertsgaard, Mark. "Chapter and verse on the need for regime change". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008.
  2. ^ Jansen, Sue Curry; Martin, Brian (2015). "The Streisand effect and censorship backfire". University of Wollongong. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.852.9159.
  3. ^ Krugman, Paul (2007-02-02). "Missing Molly Ivins". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-03-02.