Larry Beinhart's Fog Facts never quite settles on whether it wants to be a Bush-bashing book, a book on the failings of the mainstream media or both. Ultimately, it probably doesn't matter because there are better efforts out there in each category.
The book's theme is there are certain facts or significant news stories that the mainstream or establishment media tend to allow to disappear in the fog. Beinhart, a novelist who wrote Wag the Dog and last year's acclaimed The Librarian, tends to cover a lot of ground already plowed. For example, this slim volume devotes a significant amount of space to Bush's business background and Cheney's relationship and actions relating to Halliburton. Much of this has been covered in detail elsewhere. Whether the American public notices or cares is, sadly, a separate issue. Beinhart also tends to stretch some contentions. One example is the proposition that perhaps the true reason behind Bush's economic policies is to intentionally bankrupt the federal government.
There are good elements to the work. His discussion of where the money to rebuild Iraq has gone is an example of a story the media has tended to overlook. His analysis of the arguments regarding whether "objective journalism" actually contributes to the fog has some merit (although you do pause when he quotes his own work of fiction — The Librarian — as authority). He also does a good job trying to actually examine the Bush administration's actions and position on torture in light of existing international and federal law. Yet this discussion also reveals one of the core weaknesses of the work.
The book is littered with typographical errors. This isn't just the occasional misspelled or omitted word. For example, no book should make it to the shelf where the term "principal" (as in principal payments on a debt) appears properly spelled and then as "principle" in the next sentence. While Beinhart notes the publisher gave him only a three months to write the book, the editors or proofreaders should not forget the spelling or subject from one sentence to the next.
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