Bill of Wrongs

The late Molly Ivins was an outstanding journalist who fearlessly held up a mirror to Washington politicians with her syndicated columns. She and her longtime collaborator, Lou Dubose, offer similarly strong commentary in BILL OF WRONGS, but NEW YORK DAILY NEWS columnist Liz Smith does not do the work justice in translating it to audio. Smith's voice is scratchy, throaty, and unappealing. Her delivery style is singsongy, and she reads the words on the page with little emotion or attempt to make them sound interesting. That's a shame because the stories about monstrous free speech violations are as wonderful as they are important. The reporting and writing are staggeringly good, unforgettable stories that will scare Americans. And rightly so. But the reading diminishes the grandeur of the work. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine