cover image Fair and Balanced, My Ass! An Unbridled Look at the Bizarre Reality of Fox News

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

Joseph Minton Amann, Tom Breuer, . . Nation, $14.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-1-56858-347-1

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)