South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias by Brian C. Anderson

An up and down work

I will admit, the title of South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias got my attention and it was the reason that I picked it up. For the record, I am not a big fan of South Park, but I could see where he might go with it based on my limited exposure to the series (I've seen maybe 10 episodes of the show).

I was not disappointed with the "South Park" section of the book. However, that is only a small section of the book. The first 1/3 or so is your traditional "Look how they are slandering us in the media!" finger-pointing exercise that both Liberals and Conservatives use in their books. While useful for setting up the rest of his book, I could have done without it. I've been there, done that and, frankly, I am tired of it.

The middle part, the part concerning Conservative comedy, such as South Park, Dennis Miller and Colin Quinn was very good. Anderson sets up the jokes so that they usually read as funny as they were when spoken. Actually, Quinn is funnier in the written word (perhaps he should write a book) and Miller is harder to follow because of his offbeat delivery style, but it was still enjoyable.

The last section about conservative students on campus was enjoyable but I kept wondering what this had to do with the revolt against Liberal MEDIA Bias when he kept on referring to the bias of Liberal Professors?

My copy had multiple spelling errors and one mathematical error (he refers to a book written in 1984 that influenced Clinton's signing Welfare Reform into law 22 years later - that makes Clinton President in 2006 - a scary thought indeed!)

Anderson also incorrectly refers to Limbaugh's dittoheads as people who are "ditto-ing" what Limbaugh said. In other words, just agreeing with him. Limbaugh points out in a nearly weekly basis that this is not the origin of the word. It came from the early days of the show when people would call in and say something like, "Wow! I love your show! Where has this been all of my life! Conservative ideas on the radio!" and than the next caller would say the same thing. Eventually, someone got the bright idea to say, "Ditto what the last caller said." The phrase stuck. Knowing the true origin of the word would have made Anderson's thesis all the stronger, since it implies that there were Conservatives waiting for someone to speak to their issues before the "Fairness" doctrine was overturned.

I give this one 3 stars out of 5. Very easy to read, at times very, very funny. Too much re-visiting of old wounds, not enough exploring of new territory.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: South Park Conservatives.

Reviewed on July 28, 2006.