100 People Who Are Screwing Up America

I picked up at the library Bernard Goldberg's 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, just for kicks (I find it entertaining to get my blood boiling). The sub-title of the book is "And Al Franken is #37". I thought, "Now, come on, how can a comedian/radio host ruin the U.S.?! That's like saying Garrison Keillor can save the country." I figured this book was another screechy, sanctimonious screed like the other hyper-conserv books I've read for fun: The Anita Bryant Story, Listen America! by Jerry Falwell (in which he argued that Jefferson could never have fathered black babies), Rush Limbaugh's I Told You So, etc.

But I was in for a shock. 100 People is actually pretty good! And funny! Here's what Goldberg has to say about the 1966 resignation of Fred Friendly (the CBS prez played by George Clooney in Good Night and Good Luck):

"Since news division presidents don't resign as a matter of conscience over anything anymore, there's a temptation to look at any comparison between Fred Friendly then and the men running television news divisions now as one between apples and oranges. But that would be unfair - to the fruit...Comparing Friendly to the current presidents of CBS, NBC, and ABC News is more like comparing apples and lawn furniture."

Of course, I'm only 20 pages in. I might not like the rest of what Goldberg has to say. I'll let you know.