Franken Apologizes For Using Letterhead

Comedian Al Franken ’73 knows all about lies and the lying liars who tell them—in fact, in writing his most recent book by that title, he told a few fibs himself.

Franken, who sent letters to twenty-seven conservative leaders asking for testimonials for a false book about teen abstinence entitled Savin’ It, found himself in hot water earlier this year when it was discovered that such letters were drafted on University stationery.

“Don’t be afraid to share a moment when you were tempted to have sex, but were able to overcome your urges through willpower and strength of character,” Franken wrote in the letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft. “Did a young woman ever think you were homosexual just because you wouldn’t have sex with her? Be serious! Were you ever taunted and made to feel bad or ‘uncool’ because of your choice? But most of all, be real. Kids can sense a phony a mile away.”

Franken, at the time a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy, sent the April letter to numerous Washington officials, including President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, cabinet members and others, and features the text in his new book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

In the missives, Franken claimed to be working on “a book about abstinence programs in our public schools entitled, Savin’ It!”

“You could call it irony, I call it bad judgment,” said Shorenstein Center Director Alex S. Jones. “It is inappropriate to use Shorenstein stationery to play a practical joke.”

But Jones said that the incident was resolved.

“Al made a big mistake, he recognized that mistake and wrote a sincere apology to everyone involved, and that ended the matter as far as we’re concerned. The only people who are pounding the drum on this are people who are trying to discredit Al’s book,” he said.

A scant few replied to the letter Franken sent, but the former Saturday Night Live cast member guessed that assistants were the likely scribes of such correspondence.

“Basically they said ‘Good luck with Savin’ it! My boss wishes you best success and it’s a great thing you’re doing, unfortunately we’re too busy,’” Franken said. “I kind of expected that. I knew Ari Fleischer wasn’t gonna write me back.”

Franken said he regretted sending the letters, “because the Shorenstein Center is totally above board, and I put them in an awkward position.”

To that end, he put the center’s staff in charge of production support for “The Waitress and the Lawyer,” a one act play outlined in Lies about how the Bush tax cut impacts people at different ends of the income spectrum—with scenery and lighting by Jones.

“Yeah, it is that Alex Jones,” Franken said. “And Edie Holway is head of the fellows—she did the costumes.”

Lies caused a stir this summer when News Corporation’s Fox News Channel sued to have their trademark phrase “Fair and Balanced” and the image of the channel’s commentator, Bill O’Reilly, removed from the book’s cover. Penguin books, Franken’s publisher, accelerated the launch of the book to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the suit.

This Sunday, Lies will top the New York Times best seller list for the third week in a row.

—Staff writer David B. Rochelson can be reached at rochels@fas.harvard.edu.