SORE WINNERS

An engaging survey of the current pop-political landscape, John Powers' Sore Winners is cultural crit without the cant, funny and refreshingly sane. Powers, film reviewer for Fresh Air and media critic for the LA Weekly, seems to have inhaled ever bit of infotainment of the last few years, and charts the changes in the post 9/11 era of embedded reporters, serial wars, and patriotic correctness (Freedom Fries anyone?). He gives the GOP Pravda, Fox News, a well deserved once over, but doesn't give the left a free pass either. Plus, he gets bonus points for including an epigraph by my favorite fictional jazz musician, McClintic Sphere.