Sourcebooks - January 2004
308 pages - Hardcover

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FRAUD: The Strategy Behind The Bush Lies And Why The Media Didn't Tell You
by Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman, a media and political analyst, is a liberal, and not ashamed to flaunt that fact. A list of suggested interview questions for the author directly from the books publisher includes this one: "You clearly are a liberal. So you are biased against Bush. Why should we listen to you?"

Well, we—both liberals and conservatives alike—should listen to (or better yet, read) Waldman's well-organized logbook of Bush Administration deception, centered around his central thesis: how the minds behind George W. Bush have orchestrated a perceptual fraud on the mass public, characterized by deception, that is being reinforced by the media.

Waldman gets right to the chase, using straightforward language to bring forth his main arguments. In a way, Fraud feels like a complement to Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (even both titles make the same general point), but is more serious, remaining free of humorous intent. Waldman, like Franken, uses Internet searching a fair deal, and most of the sources and footnoted materials may be familiar to many. With the simplified style and vast usage of internet search tools, an armchair anti-Bush activist gets the feeling that they themselves could’ve written this book—if only they had the time or the publishing deal.

Fraud is more of a populist primer on the Bush media machine than a full-fledged academic masterpiece. Which is the way to go when trying to reach a defrauded public.

Unfortunately, Waldman stumbles at some points. A book that seems to characterize itself as a analytical expose should remain based on fact and free of message-hampering partisan zeal. Yet Waldman editorializes greatly at times, especially in the following passage: “If anyone is guilty of treason, it’s John Ashcroft. Ashcroft is a traitor to liberty, a traitor to justice, and a traitor to the noble ideals on which America was founded. Despite what he may think, Ashcroft is not a true American patriot.” While many would agree completely, such wording shouldn’t be in what would be better suited as an objective analysis.

Still, Bush backers will deny the facts presented in the book, and simply dismiss Waldman as a partisan liberal who is out to get Bush. But Waldman has collected vast amounts of facts and details from various sources, and his main thesis regarding the “fraud” behind Bush’s image, the way he has led the nation, and the media’s wrongdoings, are backed up nicely (a vast majority of the pages contains at least one footnote)—and not distorted in an Ann Coulter fashion. While diehard fans of politics and serious Democrats or Bush critics may already be aware of the information presented, it's interesting to see how Waldman ties it all together. Does it rise above all the other anti-Bush books? Not really. It’s a should-read for the uninitiated; if you pay such close attention to politics that none of this is new to you, do something positive for the country—give Fraud to someone who’s still unaware of the manipulation they've undergone.

Robert Furs