Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants : The Looting of the News in a Time of Terror

Rating:
Summary: getting the right slant on the news......
Review: First this book is extremely well written and very readable. It is, in fact, a very funny look at an extremely serious topic i.e. how the media (especially the cable news)is increasingly slanting the reported news towards a rightist political bias.
The reader is given a brief (tho funny) thumbnail bio of the 'noted' newsreaders (one can't in any honesty call them reporters anymore) Coulter, Miller, O'Reilly and assorted ilk with illustrations on their varied 'newspeak' - any concept of 'Fair and Balanced' is readily proven to both intellectually dishonest and morally corrupt.
CNN, MNBC etc do not fare too much better, these networks attempt to match the style (and success) of FOX have resulted in a pandering to the right that neither serves their purpose or the public.
Hard objective reporting still exists but is almost buried by jabbering commentators who ponificate at length with neither intelligence or principle. The 'Attack Poodles' are strident in their general loathing of the very concept of free speech ...of the basic right to disagree with an agenda that is publically ordained by God.
'Unholy' 'Unpatriotic' and 'Liberal' are used interchangeably and indiscriminately, smear tactics are the norm, there is not any attempt at a rational public discourse, there are only ranting diatribes against those who dare disagree with the neocon idea de jour. Propaganda has replaced serious reporting. The demogogue doesn't have to be either consistent or correct, only shrill and loud.
This book does remind me of a good quote (paraphrased) from 'The American President' "An 'attack poodle' has no real interest in solving your problem, he just tells you to be afraid of it and who to blame for it."



Rating:
Summary: The yapping poodles, exposed
Review: Can you imagine researching this book? How many viewing hours must it have taken James Wolcott to listen to the dozens of "Attack Poodles" about which he writes? I, for one, am glad he did as he has written a first-rate, alarmingly funny book about those right-wing pundits that fan out across our airwaves.

With the ongoing speed of a locomotive, Wolcott chops up people like Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Peggy Noonan, Dennis Miller and a "host" of others. His comments on Coulter would make the blonde bimbo's hair curl more than it would on a hot, humid day. And he allows us to see through these hapless purveyors of nonsense like a clear pane of Zell-ophane.

While the subect matter is one that should concern us all, the best part about "Attack Poodles" is that it is so deftly written. It leaves the reader trying to decide which poodle is the dumbest, (my vote goes to Joe Scarborough), the smarmiest (aren't they all), the biggest bag of wind (how about Robert Novak?) and so on. It's like being a kid in a candy shop with so many options from which to choose.

I found myself nodding in agreement with his final conclusions, which are pointed and welcome. It's a serious ending to a book which sticks the knife in, pulls it out cleanly and has fun along the way. When you have finished the book, just for added kicks, re-read the paragraph about Reagan's foot!


Rating:
Summary: Pretty Much sums up the media in today's world.
Review: CNN,CNBC,FOX, ABC,NBC,CBS, UPN,the WB, all the media companies that have and own news stations,magazines, online services,24 hour news networks all have something in commen. They are written and newscasted by movie stars in fancy suits and can not be called reporters anymore. The managaement wants rateings. They will take a good person's name and smear it in mud if it mend rateings. Americans can not trust what they see on the airwaves because so much of it is false/sentationalism news stories and that's it. The book pretty much sums it all up. It's a funny look at a business that has becme such a big joke and there are few outlets today that are still interested in reporting solid news stories with data to back them up.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining quick read that does a good job......
Review: exposing the TV network media for what they are... sellouts. Wolcott's essay is well thought out and really hits the mark. I was rather surprised he didn't give Sean Hannity more of a comeuppance but believe he did this on purpose so as not to give that egomaniac more attention than he deserves.

Good book to read in the bookstore, but not a book I would recommend actually buying. I will save my money for more books like Jon Stewart's "America - Democracy Inaction".

P.S. Too bad that this book was written before the Bill O-Reilly loofah scandal. That would have spiced things up a bit.

Rating:
Summary: Clever and funny, though not much new info
Review: I thoroughly enjoy James Wolcott's blog and find him smart yet hilarious whenever I see him on some political TV show, so I was looking forward to reading this book. If you've read a lot of the recent anti-Bush/right-wing-takeover-of-the-media type of books that have come out in the the past few years, there may not be a lot of groundbreaking new information. The real reason to read this book is Wolcott's writing style--I don't think many people can write about political punditry with a sarcastic, poetic wit the way the author does. He has a real gift for inventing phrases and descriptions for things and people that I would never have thought of, yet are totally recognizable. One of my favorite examples of this is Wolcott's uncannily apt description of Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball": "Plump and sassy inside his own hotdog skin (a self-described 'happy troll'), Matthews splashes and spills his noisy presence around the studio like a man supremely assured that he's at the top of his game, the life of the party, the zeitgeist zapping from his pores."
As a few other reviewers have mentioned, the chapter on Peggy Noonan was one of the best, and probably the chapter that provided the most completely new material. As I said before, if you read a lot of these political/media critiques, there may not be much new here, and may find the book overlong. But if you enjoy Wolcott's style, you'll be able to finish this book quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Amusing but Shallow Treatment of a Serious Issue
Review: If the Bush Administration has achieved nothing else, it has spawned a massive flow of literature critical of its principals, its actions, and the sprawling, right wing media wolf pack that aids and abets it. Add to this collection James Wolcott's ATTACK POODLES AND OTHER MEDIA MUTANTS.

Wolcott starts with the premise that a network of conservative media personalities serve the Republican Party as "attack poodles," a term he claims originated with the British press in 2002 describing those who defended Tony Blair from any and all criticism. He introduces the reader to a broad array of these right wing pundits, many familiar, many less so to most readers. Since they are all variations on essentially the same theme, they read like clones of one another and seem difficult to differentiate.

Wolcott is at his best lambasting and lampooning the behavior and so-called argumentation of his targets, deftly showing their shallowness, their deliberate recklessness with facts, and the absurdity of their claims and positions. In doing so, he indirectly demonstrates that much of what poses as "media" today is nothing more than entertainment mixed with propaganda in the service of a cause and rarely in the service of truth.

At his worst, however, Wolcott is shallow himself, tackling too many subjects and too many personalities too quickly. He goes after anyone and everyone, from Judith Miller to Matt Drudge, from Bob Novak to Dennis Miller, from Peggy Noonan to Maureen Dowd to Howard Fineman to Bill O'Reilly. This is all well and good, except that in the end, you are left with the feeling that there are only two honest news reporters in America, and one of them is James Wolcott (the other, oddly enough, is Lou Dobbs). It seems that Mr. Wolcott has an axe to grind with virtually every media personality he's ever seen, met, read, or heard of, as if he'd "never met a reporter he didn't hate." If the state of modern journalism is truly so debased, perhaps the author could address more than just its most abject practitioners.

ATTACK POODLES has a great deal to say, and some good points to make, but the author is so stridently negative that it wears you down. Additionally, he seems to relish prose that, in trying to be hip and funny, comes across as crass and sophomoric, like a high school senior trying to write a Harvard Lampoon story. Using four-letter words does not add impact or persuasiveness, it just cheapens Mr. Wolcott's arguments. Nor do ad hominem attacks such as the following (in re Ann Coulter) constitute legitimate or insightful criticism: "She is the Paris Hilton of postmodern politics, an elongated zero, a white-hot sex symbol symbolizing nothing."

This is an enjoyable book if you like seeing someone trash Rush, Fox, and company, but read it for the chuckles, not for its analytical depth. The targets of Mr. Wolcott's ire deserve everything he gives them and much more, but in the end, it's not enough to simply bad-mouth the bad guys for 250 pages. The subject deserves much more serious discussion than Wolcott gives it. See, for example, Lewis Lapham's GAG RULE or even David Brock's THE REPUBLICAN NOISE MACHINE, or better yet, check out Thomas Frank's WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? Read ATTACK POODLES for its comic relief, but not much else. As for the closing chapter on what to do about the situation, follow the advice of Brooklynites who would say, "FUGGET ABOUD IT!" One of the lamest book closings I have ever seen, enough to make Roger Ailes laugh all the way to the bank and back again.

Rating:
Summary: Fireworks Display of Language Critiques Media
Review: In the spirit and linguistic pungence of HL Mencken and Gore Vidal, Wolcott skewers the "attack poodles" of the media, loathsome cable news creatures who contribute to the dumbing down of America by their cheap marketing of ideas, their use of gimmicks, their reliance on sensationalism, their unfair demonism of their opponents, and their predictable self-promotion and self-aggrandizment. With supreme assuredeness, Wolcott lambastes the minions at Fox News and other cable news pundits. So why only four stars? Because there's an intensity to Wolcott's language that is his greatest strength as a writer but that asserts limits for book-length works. After being razzle-dazzled by Wolcott's delicious display of scathing critique, the exercise becomes redundant. He deftly defines "the attack poodle" in the book's opening, then proceeds to paint every media figure according to his definition so that the exercise, after 150 pages or so, becomes predictable and a bit monotonous. Still it is a pleasure to watch a master of language do his work, so please let me end this review on a positive note: Wolcott is always worth reading. For a companion piece about the way the media is the lapdog of politicians, you might pick up the equally deft and more complex critique Sore Winners by John Powers.

Rating:
Summary: A wide-swinging haymaker from the Left
Review: Up front: I'm NOT a Democrat. However, since the "liberal media bias" meme has gone viral, I've noticed that Democrats and the Left, in general, have really been taking it on the chin for the past four years. I wondered just how long liberal talking heads were going to sit back and take the constant barrage of malicious abuse levelled against them. Finally, a handful of decent books began to roll out in an attempt to fight back. With the 2004 election, though, Democrats seemed bloodied, dazed and confused, and reeling against the ropes once more.

Democrats lost because, like it or not, the Republican party has it's act together. They know how to frame the debate to their favor and disseminate their ideas as talking points to every node of the media chain, while the Democrats are left squabbling amongst themselves and fumbling for a coherent message that reaches voters hearts and minds.

The Republican Party is like a very good boxer who's also not afraid to throw a few illegal elbows when it comes time to mix it up inside in a tie up. Machiavellian, and it gets the job done.

Unfortunately, in the past ten years, the Right wing political beast has squeezed out a brood of 'Attack Poodles', vicious little psuedo-intellectual, yappy dog pundits that have become the rabid new breed of the chattering class. It's one thing to pull out the occasional 'snap' during heated political debate, but the tenor of op-ed commentary and public discourse in this new millenium has been shockingly over-the-top. As an example, trying to reframe political dissent as "treason" and calling for the imprisonment of those who disagree with administration policies is not only shameful and unethical, it is inexcusable. Dissent is the essence of democracy and any attempt to squelch it is in itself anti-democratic.

Well, out comes Wolcott bright-eyed with a wide-swinging haymaker of a book that makes the last few years seem like a liberal rope-a-dope ploy as he pounds the Right wing meathead punditocracy into low-grade elephant burgers. His performance is magnificent, as he waylays the entire smarmy lot.

This book is a joy to read, spot on, hilariously funny, and sings right along with page after page of beautiful, witty prose. The only drawback? Like any great bout, I was sad when it was all over. So, lace up you gloves and climb in the ring. It's your turn tackle the 'Attack Poodles'.

Rating:
Summary: Go to Wolcott's blog for the full poop
Review: Well, you got yer fiction about writing fiction. You got yer movies about other movies. You got yer musical tributes to musicians. So here's a piece of journalism about other journalism. Unfortunately, it's something of a cursory rush-job. I assume that Wolcott's gonna do a fuller hatchet-job on the war-pigs after the final thousand American cripples are brought home from Iraq. In the meantime, for a more in-depth & ongoing discussion, let me thrustfully refer you to Wolcott's weblog. Where you can find stuff like the following quote.

From DUBYA'S ZIPPITY DOO-DAH DAY by James Wolcott: "When Bush did address the soldiers' deaths, he said that we 'weep and mourn' when Americans die, but as he was saying it his hand was flatly smacking downwards for emphasis, as if he were pounding the table during a business meeting, refusing to pay a lot for a muffler. The steady beat of his hand was at odds with the sentiments he was expressing--he didn't look or sound the least bit mournful or somber. And why should he? Death doesn't seem to be a bringdown for him. There isn't the slightest evidence that he experiences the anguish LBJ did as casualties mounted in Vietnam ... He's so cocky now that he can't even fake a semblance of sorrow after hearing news that would have made most presidents turn ashen."

My only complaint about Wolcott is his addiction to cutesy-poo entertainment metaphors: "In the more traditional practice of backward revision, Morris, as documented by Joe Conason on SALON, has told 3 different versions of the alleged incident in the Arkansas governor's mansion in 1990 when an angry Bill Clinton bear-hugged him to the kitchen floor. Each version of the tale becomes more lurid and violent than the last, like successive drafts of Sam Shepard's play TRUE WEST. In the next retelling, he may have Clinton holding him down while Hillary kicks him senseless. No matter how sloppily Morris gets it wrong or rewrites the record, he manages to keep obtruding on the screen, as unstoppable as the bobbing white blob-balloon in the British cult series THE PRISONER."

Rating:
Summary: Best Media Critique
Review: Wolcott has written the best critique to date of media punditry in the Bush era. He casts a harsh but hilarious light on the lineup of retro right wingers who call themselves fair and balanced, as well as the milquetoast middle-of-the-roaders who lay down in the middle of that road to be run over by every Republicatan and reactionary vehicle that comes speeding noisily onto the airwaves. His takes on O'Reilly, Matthews, David Brooks, Dennis Miller, Peggy Noonan, are devastatingly funny and giddily entertaining. He writes just before the worst of the Swift Boat and other right-wing attacks on Kerry but he uncannily predicts them and other developments around the pre-election period. Mostly he presages the way in which the media colludes with the right; the best example being their giving equal weight to the Kerry Swift Boat attackers as they did to the defenders who had every bit of hard evidence on their side. So a bunch of slanderers get the benefit of equal treatment by our ever-fair and ever-balanced media. If we get stuck with Bush, Wolcott has squarely placed much (if not most) of the responsibility squarely on the media's shoulders, and unfortunately it may take decades before real historians (not the ones who play them on TV) will be able to get across the message of just how globally destructive this administration has been. Wolcott gets all this right, sounding an alarm bell but doing so with so much wit that reading his book is pure pleasure...setting it apart from the more scholarly and rigorous media critiques by Alterman and others. (Though "Attack Poodles" appears very well researched.) I hope Wolcott gets exposure where he most deserves it--on Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Al Franken. (Unless I missed something). The only problem with the book is cosmetic--the cover would have helped the book sell better if it had had caricatures of Coulter, Matthews, Noonan, Miller, etc.,instead of the poodle picture. How 'bout a quick paperback edition, with an election update, and a new cover like that?