Lying Liar

Al Franken accuses Ann Coulter of lying by using endnotes. According to Franken: Coulter knows that her readers… are probably not going to check one, let alone 780, of her endnotes. [p. 12, Lies] So Franken devised a clever plan: illustrate how dishonest it can be to put information in an endnote–by putting information in an endnote. The problem (read more...)

Coulter’s date of birth on her old driver’s license is off two years from a newer license. Franken says: Ann claims the DC license is correct, which means that when she registered to vote she was 16. [p. 8, Lies] She never claimed the DC license was correct. She playfully commented on her age and Franken twisted it (read more...)

Rather than slaying her on the spot, Franken admits being “cordial” when he met Ann Coulter. However,  on page 22 of Lies (paperback) he accuses Coulter of lying about their interaction. He says she told a reporter she was “friendly” with him. As the astute observer will note, the word “cordial” is a direct synonym for “friendly”—a fact (read more...)

Franken at times thinks he’s arguing against statements but is actually agreeing with them. For instance, Franken quoted Sean Hannity creatively framing the beliefs of his opposition: “They tell us that fuel-burning SUVs are bad for America, but flag-burning SOBs aren’t.” [p. 98, Lies] Even though Hannity was not presenting an argument, Franken was on top of it, proving that Sean (read more...)

Sean Hannity cited statistics exposing the New York City public school system as “an absolute abomination” (A fact which Franken does not dispute). Then Hannity wrote, And as if that weren’t bad enough, city and state education officials didn’t seem to have a clue about what was going wrong. “Is it teaching?” asked state Education Commissioner Richard (read more...)

Per usual, Fox News opinion commentator co-hosts Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes voiced their opinions following the 2003 State of the Union address. Franken complains: The point-counterpoint pretty much broke down like this: “This is a big vision! This is a bold agenda!” vs. “President Bush did a magnificent job!” Quick. Which one of the critical (read more...)

Goldberg mentioned the lack of outrage in the media over the popularity in the Arab world of a song called, “I hate Israel”. Franken points out that so-called “conservative” media were not outraged, either. And that 9 more papers mentioned the story than Goldberg had thought. Franken has a good point. But Goldberg has a better (read more...)

Franken says: Why, Bernie wants to know, is Phyllis Schlafly always labeled a “conservative”? Maybe because the official biography on her Eagle Forum website calls her a “national leader of the conservative movement. Franken’s comment makes Bernie Goldberg seem pretty dense. But Goldberg was not wondering or complaining about Schlafly being called a conservative. In fact, he (read more...)

Franken minimizes Goldberg’s complaint about CBS Weekend News producer Roxanne Russell referring to Gary Bauer as a “little nut from the Christian group” during a conference call. That was unfair. Thank God CBS didn’t broadcast the conference call, because that would have been very biased. The point Goldberg was making in his book, however, was a little (read more...)

Franken distorts again. This time, a chapter in Bernie Goldberg’s book, Bias, titled “The Most Important Story You Never Saw on TV  Bernie Goldberg wrote that the media only gives one side of the story a fair shake when it comes to issues like child day care.   Here’s what Goldberg’s actual point was: The problem is that they (read more...)