Fair and Balanced, My Ass!: An Unbridled Look at the Bizarre Reality of Fox News [Paperback]

Joseph Minton Amann (Author), Tom Breuer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 26, 2007

Fair and Balanced, My Ass! is a wide-ranging, irreverent, and humorous look at America's number-one cable news network. It examines Fox's phony patriotism and piety, its dishonest crusades, its well-defined agenda, and ratings–driven techniques. The authors deliver a hearty slap down to the jewels in the Murdoch crown, including Bill O'Reilly, Hannity and Colmes, Fox and Friends, and more.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Coauthors Amann and Breuer (Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly) let rip with this vehement screed against Fox News, which features a host of conservative, opinion-heavy programs targeted to a middle America audience, according to its well-crafted sales strategy. What concerns these avowedly liberal pundits is that "Fox does a demonstrably poor job of presenting the cold, hard facts in a spin-free fashion" as compared with CNN or MSNBC. Solidly referencing their arguments, the authors take issue with the slanted presentation by news shows such as Hannity & Colmes, Fox & Friends and, especially, The O'Reilly Factor, whose hosts regularly target the secularization of Christmas, Hollywood elites and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. The authors are outraged by what they perceive as the network's shoddy, irresponsible journalism and alarmed that these right-wing views imbibed daily by millions of people will turn Americans into "fatuous morons." Stylistically sarcastic and fairly raunchy, the authors have sadly allowed themselves to be tainted by what they see as Fox's own brand of vulgarization and can be downright rude and their criticism personal. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Minton Amann and Breuer, famous for their animus toward Bill O'Reilly, take Fox News to task, not because of its conservatism but for what they view as its looniness—a news organization that fails to deliver news to its viewers. Their most compelling evidence of that failure consists of studies showing Fox News viewers' gross misperceptions about the Iraq War. Despite the network's claim of offering balance and objectivity, it offers biased coverage and blustering commentary masked as analysis, according to the authors. Drawing on media studies as well as their own observations, the authors provide numerous examples of Fox News' failure to meet the minimum standards of news gathering. Among the more troubling elements of Fox News' techniques is a phony patriotism that rebrands any political dissent as treason. With the zeal and humor they displayed in Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Reilly (2006), the authors dissect the news delivery of Rupert Murdoch's network and ponder its impact on American political and social discourse. Bush, Vanessa

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Product Details

• Paperback: 279 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books; 1St Edition edition (April 26, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568583478
• ISBN-13: 978-1568583471
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #925,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Didn't want to set it down....., May 1, 2007

By 

Jenny L. Erdmann (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fair and Balanced, My Ass!: An Unbridled Look at the Bizarre Reality of Fox News (Paperback)

I read this book at a furious pace. It is laugh-out-loud funny, and laughing out loud while reading is not something I typically do. But what I enjoyed most was the clever and logical arguments that the authors used to systematically take down the notion of the "fair and balanced" network. Some of the language is certainly crude, but for anyone not offended by such humor, I highly recommend this very smart book.

66 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The funniest book I've ever read on a serious subject!, May 5, 2007

By 

Timothy P. Scanlon (Hyattsville, MDUSA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fair and Balanced, My Ass!: An Unbridled Look at the Bizarre Reality of Fox News (Paperback)

Legitimate criticism has been expressed toward the American media for years. Spiro Agnew--remember him?--made a deal out of what he alleged were "liberal biases" of the media and the "right wing" has run with that ever since (even though Agnew long since laughed that his earlier accusations were made up!)

Since Rupert Murdoch purchased half the media in this country, they've began to resemble Tass or Pravda, extremely ideological channels spewing what turns out to be bad propaganda. That I think is a major threat to what purports to be a democracy. Anyway, the worst example of this phenomenon is the network which is the subject of this hilarious text.

One of the leading cable "news" networks, according to a poll or two, is Fox (or Faux) News. One of Fox's lead spokescreatures, bill o'lielly, was the subject of the first book by the authors of this gem, that one called "Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O'Rielly." That text really broke me up so I couldn't wait for another expose of what claims to be "news." They didn't let me down.

After an overall comment of the network, the authors first dug into their old nemesis o'lielly. Then they break into others, including one of the poorest excuses for anything in history, Sean Hannity. Their description of John Gibson, roughly when God asked if he wanted skin pigment, Gibson thought He meant a brain and said, "I don't need any."

I'm afraid to give too much away, but they also cover the "B team," including the illiterate Bo Dietl whose language wouldn't have passed a "Mickey Mouse Club" screen test. Then there's our old friend Ann Coulter.

The book is loaded with direct quotes. So the authors aren't, unfortunately, making anything up (except for a few places where they admit doing so. And that's something Fox News seldom if ever admits, though they do it so frequently.)

Robert Greenwald did a fine film entitled "Outfoxed," available from [...], which I've recommended to many. He and Alexandria Kitty released a fine book of the same title, a great supplement to the film. But those were pretty serious compared to the witty comments and observations of Amman and Breuer.

Oh, the issues of sexuality--hetero and homo--covered in the book stimulate many a thought and loads of chuckles. (It's always funny on how those who claim to be such prudes are often the most sexually obsessed among us. I won't say more, but that may encourage you to read the book.)

Yeah, this does have a little of "preaching to the choir" about it. The language, while funny, would be particularly offensive--or would be an excuse of those who defend the Faux network to dislike the book. And the authors' metaphors are the best and funniest.

It's true, it is a "laugh out loud" book, even on a Washington DC Metro train where I may have been surrounded by Fox junkies!

Get it, read it, and learn what Faux is really about. I'm proud to be a native of the same state in which the books authors reside!

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not as funny as their first book., June 22, 2007

By 

Jose Jones - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fair and Balanced, My Ass!: An Unbridled Look at the Bizarre Reality of Fox News (Paperback)

Apparently my first review didn't make it through the filter (not really sure why, but it seems more common nowadays).

I'll keep it brief this time: This book is often hilarious, but everyone knows how Fox works, and no one of reasonable intelligence or honesty believes they are unbiased. So this book is more or less shooting fish in a barrel. The much more dangerous conservative propaganda comes from the so-called "left-wing media," where it is taken seriously (the book "F.U.B.A.R." laid this all out beautifully).

This book is best when going after the individual quirks of the personalities on Fox News. It also shows that, under the buffoonery and red-white-and-blue obviousness, Fox can be insidious about its agenda, too: as in its homophobic reaction to the movie "Brokeback Mountain."

In "SJIHBO," the authors had Bill's stunning ego to play off of. They don't have that here, and there's nothing exactly groundbreaking to be found.

But the writers are talented and the book is at times riotously funny. By exposing the absurdity that is Fox News, the authors slightly relieve the sting of our current realities.