i've been reluctantly digesting each of joe conason's week-long series* in salon. each piece is excerpted from his new book, Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth.
i say reluctant because books with that sort of title (see, e.g., treason, libel, rush limbaugh is a big, fat idiot, etc. ad nauseam) probably answer fewer questions than they sell titles. i say probably because i've never read any of them. there are plenty of good things to read. i'll look to them instead. (again with the snobbery). (again with the self-loathing parentheticals). (this is getting cheap, played, tired).
predictably, conason (whose daily column in salon i like ) gets fairly reductive. his pot-or-kettle response to conservative insistence that the republican party is the home of "hard working normal americans" is not a nuanced explanation that neither party is so monolithic but instead the inverse of his enemy's: the democratic party is the home of "hard working normal americans."
intermittent gripes aside, i've enjoyed... no, that's not it at all... been intrigued by the series. very much worth the time. that doesn't mean i'll buy the book.
*salon, of course, requires a subscription. sort of. i rely on the free day pass. probably ought not do that, but pocket change is tight. we got this here depression on.
Posted by dave at August 21, 2003 11:25 AM | TrackBack