{"id":319,"date":"2007-07-01T21:19:20","date_gmt":"2007-07-02T02:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/01\/ihs-libertyguide-reviews-attention-deficit-democracy\/"},"modified":"2007-07-01T21:19:20","modified_gmt":"2007-07-02T02:19:20","slug":"ihs-libertyguide-reviews-attention-deficit-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/01\/ihs-libertyguide-reviews-attention-deficit-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"I.H.S. LibertyGuide Reviews Attention Deficit Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Institute for Humane Studies&#8217; LibertyGuide <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.libertyguide.com\/book_reviews\/id.4043\/review_detail.asp\">website<\/a><\/strong> reviewed <strong>Attention Deficit Democracy<\/strong>. Samuel DeConio, who is finishing a doctorate in political science, covered many of the book&#8217;s subjects in his article.\u00a0\u00a0 I appreciate the time and effort he took to read and review A.D.D.\u00a0 His review is very thorough on several aspects of the book that have not received much ink in other reviews.<\/p>\n<p>For purposes of keeping this blog lively, I&#8217;ll quote portions of the review where DeConio differed with the book:<\/p>\n<p><em>Bovard&#8217;s discussion of Franklin Roosevelt&#8217;s lying to the American public about his attempts to draw the United States into World War II appears to assume that such lies, and the ignorance that enabled them to be effective, were necessarily a bad thing, and merely confirmation that politicians systematically engage in misleading deception&#8230;. Roosevelt clearly lied to the public regarding his attempts to propel American into World War II, but it is difficult to see why this was a bad thing.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>****<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Though Bovard criticizes Lincoln for having &#8220;contempt&#8221; for the Bill of Rights and engaging in other actions, such as jailing people without charges, and shutting down newspapers and state legislatures, as violations of liberty, there is no discussion of whether it is appropriate to deplore Lincoln&#8217;s actions as violations of liberty, especially given that the institutions he suppressed were committed to maintaining egregious violations of African Americans&#8217; personal liberty.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>***\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Bovard seems to argue that political elites have far more control over controlling media coverage of scandals than seems to be the case. In his discussion of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal that &#8220;the only thing necessary for a successful coverup is for the president . . . to continuously proclaim that everything will be investigated, and then, months later, to proclaim that everything has already been investigated&#8221;( pg. 146). Yet, this seems far too facile as\u00a0it involves a series of claims that need far closer documentation than what has been given. Indeed, political elites who were associated with the Abu Ghraib scandal did not feel as if they could simply cover up the event. For example, Donald Rumsfeld actually attempted to resign after the scandal broke, but President Bush refused to accept his resignation. This kind of action is hardly consistent with a depiction of elites who believe that they can effectively control any scandal simply by having the president make public statements, and may indicate that the media play a far more independent role than Bovard suggests.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>****<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Hmmmmm&#8230;.\u00a0\u00a0 I wonder how\u00a0Seymour Hersh (who did the great piece in the June 25\u00a0 <em>New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0on Rumsfeld&#8217;s machinations on Abu Ghraib) and Barton Gellman (the <em>Washington Post<\/em> reporter who nailed Cheney&#8217;s role in spawning and perpetuating U.S. government torture despite court defeats) would score that last paragraph&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Institute for Humane Studies&#8217; LibertyGuide website reviewed Attention Deficit Democracy. Samuel DeConio, who is finishing a doctorate in political science, covered many of the book&#8217;s subjects in his article.\u00a0\u00a0 I appreciate the time and effort he took to read and review A.D.D.\u00a0 His review is very thorough on several aspects of the book that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[659,22,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"tag-attention-deficit-democracy","8":"tag-bovard"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I.H.S. 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Samuel DeConio, who is finishing a doctorate in political science, covered many of the book&#8217;s subjects in his article.\u00a0\u00a0 I appreciate the time and effort he took to read and review A.D.D.\u00a0 His review is very thorough on several aspects of the book that [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/01\/ihs-libertyguide-reviews-attention-deficit-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-02T02:19:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/01\\\/ihs-libertyguide-reviews-attention-deficit-democracy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/01\\\/ihs-libertyguide-reviews-attention-deficit-democracy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"I.H.S. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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