..this insightful book is focused less on Trump himself than on the conditions that sustain him — and on what, if anything, can be done to reverse them ... Enough Said displays many of the qualities that it identifies as lacking in our civic discourse. It is thoughtful, nuanced and wise; it considers opposing views; it takes ample note of history and is unafraid of complexity. To read this book is to feel there is cause, however tenuous, for hope.
Thompson usually advances his case in cool, nuanced and forensic prose, but he is a blistering flame-thrower about the consequences of the digital revolution ... He also gives a kicking to newspapers and conventional broadcasters who, scared of looking backward and hungry for free content, give further amplification to the howlround ... Then he rescues himself from despair by reminding himself that public language has come back to life before, even as the last rites were being read over it. There’s hope for reasoned persuasion yet.
I don’t think this book will change the continuing debates about 'bias' and 'objectivity,' the separation of the public into distinct fact universes, the disappearing boundary between entertainment and civic life, the imperiled concept of 'truth' or the other important topics it addresses. But it offers many instructive allusions, useful judgments and important refinements on these themes — and provides reassurance by its mere existence that someone in the author’s position is grappling so earnestly with such questions.
...[a] superb book ... Thompson’s own experience in the media is brilliantly deployed throughout for insight. Few other commentators on the subject can call on such depth of personally informed analysis ... Thompson is a sharp and entertaining analyst of political language itself, drawing on terms from classical rhetoric.
