What Liberal Media?: The Truth About Bias and the News (Art of Mentoring Series)

FROM OUR EDITORS

According to Bernard Goldberg, Bill O'Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh, liberals control the media. In fact, that claim has been a popular standard for conservative thinkers and politicians for decades. In What Liberal Media? media columnist Eric Alterman takes the war into the enemy's camp, pursuing an aggressive investigation into the intrinsically conservative nature of the U.S. news. Naming names and lobby groups, he profiles the real newsmakers behind and beyond the cameras.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The question of whose interests the media protects - and how - has achieved holy-grail-like significance. Is media bias keeping us from getting the whole story? If so, who is at fault? Is it the liberals who are purported to be running the newsrooms, television and radio stations of this country, duping an unsuspecting public into mistaking their party line for news? Or is it the conservatives who have identified media bias as a reliably inflammatory rallying cry around which to consolidate their political base as they cynically "work the refs?" The media has become so pervasive in our lives that regardless of exactly where on the ideological fence you sit, the question of media bias has become all but unavoidable." "Most of the criticism (and anger) has so far emanated from the political Right, which has offered us the rather unconvincing argument that a systematic Left bias is destroying the quality of news and debate in our country today. Journalist and historian Eric Alterman begs to differ." What Liberal Media? confronts the question of liberal bias and, in so doing, provides a sharp and utterly convincing assessment of the realities of political bias in the news. In distinct contrast to the conclusions reached by Ann Coulter, Bernard Goldberg, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly, Alterman finds the media to be, on the whole, far more conservative than liberal, though it is possible to find evidence for both views. The fact that conservatives howl so much louder and more effectively than liberals is one significant reason that big media is always on its guard for "liberal" bias but gives conservative bias a free pass.

SYNOPSIS

Alterman (media columnist for The Nation) debunks the right-wing myth of the "liberal media," taking on the allegations of liberal slant proffered in such books as Ann Coulter's Slander and Bernard Goldberg's Bias. After describing the contrary evidence to many of the assertions contained in those and similar books, he describes the network of corporate funded conservative think tanks and their ability to influence the message of the "punditocracy," taking on such figures as the Washington Post's David Broder, conservative media critic Howard Kurtz, radio host Rush Limbaugh. He then turns to media treatment of the Clinton administration, the 2000 elections, George W. Bush, and a range of social and political issues, arguing that their presentation to the public was skewed in a distinctly rightward direction. A new afterword examines media treatment of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Ted Widmer - New York Times

Alterman is ready for a bar fight, and he comes out swinging. His first targets are Goldberg and Ann Coulter, the acidulous commentator whose mini-skirts and mini-thoughts have ensured her a wide following on the paleolithic end of the political spectrum. Alterman dusts off some of her more outrageous quotations (wishing that Timothy McVeigh had blown up The New York Times, to cite one example), which more or less refute themselves, and then proceeds to the more serious argument that ''the right is working the refs'' the way loudmouthed coaches do -- to gain whatever tactical advantage they can.

In fact, Alterman argues, the bias is hard to find. The Times was hardly soft on the Clinton administration, chasing after Whitewater for years, and The Washington Post has been slouching rightward for some time. Talk radio is Death Valley for the left, and the world of television punditry is not much better. Throughout the book, the idea of a liberal reporter seems a faint anachronism -- like the typewriter or Jimmy Olsen's bow tie -- when contrasted to the disciplined nexus of private foundations, talk shows and dirt-seeking oppo men that the right uses to get out its message. Alterman vividly presents this nether world as something out of Dante's ''Inferno'' -- the trust-funders with deep pockets, like Richard Mellon Scaife; the Internet bottom-feeders who traffic in rumors and half-truths (Matt Drudge); the braying hosts and guests on shows like ''The O'Reilly Factor'' and ''The McLaughlin Group,'' who never shut their mouths to listen to one another (where's the duct tape when you actually need it?).

But it's one thing to rant about the right, and it's another to show tangible proof that democracy is being tampered with. This Alterman sets out to do in his two best chapters, detailing the press's dismissive treatment of Al Gore in 2000 and its indifference to the actual counting of the votes in Florida. Alterman suggests persuasively that the press mollycoddled George W. Bush in the months leading to the election. Another interesting revelation is that the Republicans were poised to launch a ''massive talk radio operation'' to attack the verdict if Gore won the electoral count but lost the popular vote. History turned out differently, as we know, and Gore was excoriated as a sore loser for even questioning the result. By working the refs, the Bush team ended up winning the Super Bowl....

The New Yorker

Alterman, a columnist for The Nation, says that, to the extent that the liberal media still exists, "I work in the middle of it, and so do many of my friends. And guess what? It's filled with right-wingers." His thesis, a response to recent books by the conservatives Ann Coulter and Bernard Goldberg, is that liberal media outlets take pains to feature opinion from all across the political spectrum (and are in some cases veering rightward); meanwhile, the right-wing media -- a well-funded empire of radio stations, TV shows, and magazines -- pursues an overtly partisan agenda. A polemic is nothing without passion, and Alterman's argumentative vigor is engaging, although his focus sometimes drifts, and he can happily spend an entire paragraph upbraiding Howard Kurtz for having said that William Kristol's being a Mets fan proves him to be "contrarian." Like most media commentators, Alterman probably overestimates the influence of media commentators, but the meticulous care with which his arguments are sourced and footnoted is in commendable contrast to the efforts of some of his more fire-breathing conservative opponents.

Book Magazine - Sean Kevin Fitzpatrick

The commercial success achieved by right-wing authors Ann Coulter and Bernard Goldberg has inspired Alterman, a lefty, to take his own turn at bashing the media. In his second book, the author challenges the notion of a "liberal" media, arguing that the right has been so successful at manipulating the press that political debate in this country has shifted dramatically to the conservative side. Moreover, the right raises huge sums of money to influence that debate and rewards conservative media spokespersons like Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge. Alterman expresses his displeasure with President George W. Bush and attacks a variety of personalities in the administration and among the journalists who cover it, including New York Times reporter Frank Bruni, whose coverage of the Bush campaign Alterman calls "issueless." In fact, Alterman's incessant attacks on his peers are so many and so virulent that the reader may eventually suspect him of being less interested in reporting than in settling scores.

Publishers Weekly

Media bias has been preventing the American public from getting the whole story, says journalist Alterman, and bestselling books like Ann Coulter's Slander and Bernard Goldberg's Bias aren't helping matters. Alterman, who writes the "Stop the Presses" media column for the Nation and an MSNBC Web log, "Altercation," passionately lays out his case in this succinct, abridged reading of his latest book. Along with Coulter and Goldberg, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and George Will come under the gun, too, as Alterman picks apart the problems with today's news media. While it's intriguing to hear him list what he sees as quite grievous offenses by conservative media outlets, Alterman's well-documented research is what makes the book so engaging. Alterman reads this audiobook like a fervent political science or journalism professor might, listing facts and citing reports, then adding his own inflections to emphasize points. A Queens, N.Y., native, Alterman speaks with a slight accent and an even slighter lisp, but this does not detract from his heated, heartfelt performance. Simultaneous release with the Basic hardcover (Forecasts, Jan. 27). (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

KLIATT - Daniel Levinson

Alterman and this book got a lot of attention when the hardcover edition was published, joining Al Franken and others in the liberal counterattack against conservative books alleging liberal bias in the media. Alterman's book is among the most carefully researched and argued of the lot, and as media critic for The Nation he is a smart, experienced journalist who makes no bones about being an old-fashioned liberal politically. The book examines what kind of messages really get out in television, print, and radio. He also has chapters about economic and social bias, the 2000 election, "W's World," and ends with an afterword on "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Of course such a book is part of a cultural dialogue at a particular time in history, and many of the names and events discussed have already been succeeded by new media favorites as the debate (at least on cable TV) continues. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Perseus, 357p. notes., Ages 15 to adult. Read all 8 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Whether you agree with it or argue with it, you'll be grateful you read it. (E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Why Americans Hate Politics and They Only Look Dead)  — E. J. Dionne Jr.