March 11, 2023

Former Sen. Al Franken, who will be hosting the Daily Show all month, talks about the effect of media propaganda on our democracy with Ari Melber.

"You were right to warn about how propaganda mixes with a type of attacks on democracy. What do you see here now tonight?" Melber asked.

Franken talked about how he was sued by Fox for the title of his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. He described how he and his researchers proved Fox hosts lied.

"They sued me on copyright infringement" for the second part of the title, he said -- because they couldn't prove they weren't lying.. He said Bill O'Reilly was the person who insisted Fox sue him.

"What O'Reilly didn't understand is that satire is protected speech, even if the target of the satire didn't get it," he said with his trademark laugh.

"And some things have only gotten worse," Melber said.

"When you look at, for example, what's happening in the story they're not really echoing much, but the way they're using the Jan. 6th tapes, this is a story as well about the Republican party, not just any one person on Fox."

He then played a clip of Kevin McCarthy reacting to the criticism.

"I said at the very beginning. Transparency, and each person can come up with their own conclusion."

"It's just complete bull all the time," Franken chortled.

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