The book I chose to read is entitled The No-Spin Zone written by Bill O'Reilly, a journalist and host of the popular The O'Reilly Factor television show. In the book O'Reilly expresses his anger with issues in politics, in Hollywood, in every social stratum of America. True to its title, the book cuts through all the rhetoric that some of O'Reilly's most infamous guests have spewed to expose what's really on their minds, while sharing plenty of his own emphatic counterpoints along the way.
O'Reilly takes on variety of issues and personalities in the book, in an attempt to find the truth amidst the constant "spinning" of the media. The disagreement between O'Reilly and his guests makes for interesting reading, but he devotes only a chapter to each issue he examines, making the discussions somewhat rudimentary. The No-Spin Zone delivers not only his opinion, but the documented attitudes of the country's movers and shakers as well.
In the No-Spin Zone "lies are rejected and equivocations are mocked." "All I ask is for powerful people to respond honestly to the questions, and if they can't, explain why," says O'Reilly. .
Chapters include interviews with James Carville (on Bill Clinton), Dr. Laura (on working mothers), former surgeon general Dr. Joycelyn Elders (on sex education), Puff Daddy (on rap), Susan Sarandon (on police brutality), and Al Sharpton (on boycotts). O'Reilly insightfully introduces each, mulling over the issue or providing background. To cover TV sleaze and violence, he adds interviews from Steve Allen and Howdy Doody's Buffalo Bob. The same treatment is applied to the death penalty (George W. Bush, Bianca Jagger), taxes (Mario Cuomo, GAO head David Walker) and other issues.
In chapter one, O'Reilly takes on Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment attorney, in an intense discussion over the controversial organization known as the North American Man-Boy Love Association. The organization, also known as NAMBLA, "advocates the legalization of sex between men and boys as young as eight-years-old".