It's Getting Ugly Out There: The Frauds, Bunglers, Liars, and Losers Who Are Hurting America

His deep, fatherly voice may evoke the comfort of an old-fashioned, Conkrite-era news broadcast, but newsman Cafferty has made a career of saying whatever he damn well pleases: "I get paid to ask questions I don't know the answers to and to complain about the things that bother me." Reading the television news correspondent's first book feels much like watching his segments on CNN's The Situation Room, in which he follows a similarly straightforward formula: denounce bad leadership, media shortcomings and government missteps with a satirical tone just above withering. From Katrina to Iraq, from immigration to terrorism, from Bush-baiting to big business, Cafferty admits to "saying some pretty outrageous stuff" in order to get his audience riled up. Aside from skewering congress, shaming rich white guys, and repudiating Anna Nicole (the "peroxide blonde never-was"), Cafferty sheds some light on his own life, sharing personal episodes about disrespecting his boot camp drill sergeants and letting his terrier defecate in the lobby of the Des Moines television station for which he was working. Without his rich vocal presence, Cafferty's tough talking cynicism can become grating, but also cuts through, with ease, a media climate thick with rigid ideology and tabloid excess. (Sept.) (Publishers Weekly, August 13, 2007)