October 30-November 5, 2003

artpicks

Joe Conason

by Sam Adams

books

Despite its title, Joe Conason's Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth (Thomas Dunne) isn't a partisan screed in the Ann Coulter/Michael Moore tradition. Instead, it's a primer for Democratic image enhancement, a point-by-point rebuttal to right canards. Democrats are weak-willed peaceniks? The 107th Congress had more Democratic veterans than Republican in the Senate, while such strident hawks as John Ashcroft and Tom DeLay skip over their own cozy deferments (not to mention that of our Top Gun commander in chief). Liberals are tax and spend while Republicans favor fiscal responsibility? Look no further than the squandered surplus of the last two years. Framed as a counter-argument, Conason's book too rarely takes aim at Democratic fellow travelers who play both sides of the fence -- like those who voted for last week's shameful ban on so-called partial birth abortion, then cleared their consciences in the media after the fact. And, sad to say, those who remain open to Conason's well-reasoned prose probably aren't those he needs to reach -- the short-tempered saps who actually believe that the top-rated Bill O'Reilly is a victim, who can't be bothered with the facts of how little the current administration really thinks of them. That said, Big Lies should probably be committed to memory by anyone hoping to silence that loudmouth at the far end of the bar -- if you can gag him long enough to get a word in.

Joe Conason, Wed., Nov. 5, 7 p.m., free, Blauvelt Theater, Friends Select School, 17th and the Parkway, 215-563-4184.

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