Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining even as he appropriately skewers media hacks
Review: Not surprisingly, closed-minded losers and Castro-apologist lefties have started "reviewing" Bernie's book by attempting to convince us that evil coroporations are stage-managing the news with a conservative bias. All of this, because ordinary Americans (the subject of the elites' disdain) have been lately rejecting the parade of anti-war, anti-gun, anti-business, pro-racial quota socialist phonies that still to this day populate the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time and Newsweek, CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN.Lefties like to say, "The media are only as liberal as the conservative businesses that own them." Well, the businesses that own the vast majority of news media operations are anything but conservative. They are rich, all right, but they are owned and operated by LIMOUSINE LIBERALS, a bunch of elitist, arrogant and in their own mind, superior beings. In concert with the Hollywood Left and the government-sponsored official intelligencia-in-residence at our Ivory Towers, particular disdain is reserved for those average Americans who, despite years of government-school indoctrination and media cheerleading, have uniformly refused to buy into their collectivist twaddle. Under the guise of scholarship and reporting, we now see that every breaking story, every crisis is just a another front for an unending litany of tiresome, bleeding-hearted, effusive, pseudo-intellectual punk rants that demand with oozing sentimentality that every bloody aspect of our lives be controlled by their glorious United Nations. These Mercedes Marxists, the self-righteous "religious left", paint anyone who dares to question their litany of socialist solutions as an apologist for Jerry Falwell, Adolph Hitler, or even Satan himself, Ronald Reagan. (Ha ha) Of course, as Goldberg discussed during an interview this past week, the recent Reagan movie fiasco is just more evidence that today's media elites reside in a puncture-proof bubble, convinced that their own carefully scripted myths about conservativism would go unchallenged by a justifiably indignant and disgusted public, the people in Peoria, the people in the "red states" that voted for Bush, the people that are privately referred to as "Joe and Mary Six-Pack" by the Media Elite. Astute readers will notice that the rhetoric from the left has become increasingly shrill, openly hateful of Southerners, stay-at-home Moms, homeschoolers, anyone who dares to own and enjoy a vehicle (such as a full-size pickup) that they deem as unnecessary, but especially, members of the working class or members of minority groups who do not share their vision of ever-expanding social spending, racial engineering, mindless lawsuits inspired by advocates for the "nanny state", unfunded mandates on small business, and the attendant control by bureaucrats, judges and self-appointed academic experts over our lives. The reason for this increasingly bitter and sickening vitriol is that the intelligent, open-minded and thoughtful individuals once courted by the Left have elected to jump off their Titanic journey into socialist hell. I highly recommend this book as well as Bernie's first book, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News. Read for yourself how media elites are anything but conservative in their treatment of homelessness, gun rights, judicial activism and the goals of radical feminists. Read how they have widened racial divisions for ratings and profit by using leftist-inspired "identity politics", for example, by simply refusing to give any coverage to the thoughts of Black leaders with opinions not approved by racial blackmail artists such as Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. Read how homelessness began the day Reagan was elected and ended the day Bush Sr. left office. Read how guns are never depicted as preventing crimes, even when this is clearly the case in so many instances and is clearly an integral part of virtually every news story involving criminals who are subdued or apprehended. Read how left-leaning advocates' claims about virtually any social issue you can name are treated as God's own truth, but let a conservative think-tank issue a study at odds with the Left and if it's not ignored entirely, then every detail is gone over with a fine-tooth comb just in time to be thoroughly debunked on World News Tonight. One would think that the Media Elites would want to be more effective at advocating their positions, by at least presenting alternative viewpoints and allowing their arguments to win out in a true battle of thought and ideas. What Goldberg illustrates with wit, example and clarity is that their own arrogance is so great that they believe that Americans can't think for themselves and must be led around by the nose. The big networks, newspapers and newsmagazines have instead turned important news and social issues into a typical Hollywood movie. In their minds, they must beat the audience over the head with scripted messages and celebrity-obsessed, feel-good reporting that universally depicts republicans and businesspeople as heartless and uncompassionate, while their heroes, the democrats, lawyers and racial activists are always presented as caring and open-minded. My solution has been simple: I don't watch the alphabet networks' newscasts nor will I bother with Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, nor my home newspaper, the equally arrogant Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That's the ultimate cure for the noxious Media Elites -- read what we want, learn about their techniques, reject their specious arguments and then vote with our remotes and our wallets and put them and their Nattering Nabobs of Negativity out of business, forever. Spread the word: Arrogance is a fun and informative read.
Rating: 
Summary: Bias Part II: This Time It's Personal!
Review: Long ago, William F. Buckley asserted that liberals claim to want to give an airing to "other views", but are then shocked and appalled that there _are_ other views. More recently, Jonah Goldberg said that the word "conservative" in the news media has contracted to simply mean the position you the reader are meant to disapprove of. Both quotes could serve as epigraphs for _Arrogance_. This book is billed as a prescription for remedies of liberal media bias. It is not. It is a second helping of exposure of journalistic malfeasance on the part of the New York Times and the big three networks. What pointers Goldberg does offer come toward the end, and even then are merely hooks upon which to hang more indictments. It's clear that the publishers, who may be liberal themselves but aren't allergic to the profits a sequel to a conservative bestseller would bring, wanted Goldberg to serve up lots more of the same. In one of her books Ann Coulter noted how reviewers had for years and years referred to popular conservative books as "surprise bestsellers." A surprise to who? Not to Warner Books anymore, not with the bills to pay on that Time-Warner merger with AOL! To liberals, Bernard Goldberg may be a traitor, but the attempts by some of them to paint him as a hack or a phony have fallen flat. You have to be very good to stay on at the the major networks for nearly thirty years, as Goldberg did. The efforts to smear him merely give more credence to his charge of herd mentality. It's an important distinction that Goldberg insists on: there is no secret liberal media NKVD, keeping everyone in line. Rather, it's a case of "birds of a feather flock together". Regardless of how educated or smart or possessed of goodwill people may be, they are still taken aback, at least momentarily, if it slips out that one of their number does not share their worldview. Now replace the set of educated, smart people of goodwill with self-impressed, arrogant products of politically correct Blue State journalism schools, and you can see the trouble coming a mile off. Goldberg goes easy on the statistics and heavy on the dismaying anecdotes. Indeed, if some people continue to dismiss his work as "anecdotal", you can be sure that that means they are nervous that the peasants might be listening. His chapters are arranged thematically: race, feminism, sports, etc. His tone is a rather yammery blend of sarcasm and incredulity, but the sympathetic reader can take this as proof of how outraged he is over how far his profession's standards have fallen. Frequently, he pauses in his description of how a particular story was misreported, to distance himself from the issue or the principals. His only goal is improving journalism, he says, not joining the right-wing media watchdogs. (Though truth to tell, another watchdog of Goldberg's experience and savvy surely wouldn't hurt.) The book appeared before a couple of recent media feeding frenzies, which would have fit right in. As I write, the national press corps is running Democratic National Committee talking points as breaking news, making a story out of the quality of President Bush's denials of decades-old and still unproven allegations of being AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. At the same time they are stonewalling for the moment allegations of infidelity on the part of the current Democrat frontrunner. In the internet age, it won't work. Denial is just a river in Egypt, thanks to the internet--and Bernard Goldberg.
Rating: 
Summary: A tired act
Review: You people listen to too much talk radio. In this book, Goldberg does just what your other heroes do: Tell us what the evil liberals are saying, but seldom give them a chance to speak for themselves (unless, of course they have an extreme kook 'liberal' on so they can act as if the extreme is the norm). When a liberal or democrat does voice a say, the answer is often a sarcastic "oh, I'm just an evil,hompohobic, racist, republican", as if by mocking the other side's statements by adopting the "oh, poor me" role, the argument is refuted and we can move on to the next subject. Look folks, you are being played by phony populists looking to sell books. While they bash 'elites', they are laughing all the way to the bank. Question: Why do you think BG knows so much about 'elites' ?- Answer: Becuase he is one ! You think this guy would take your a call in a million years? Gimmee a break. More and more americans are seeing how tired this act is, and are thinking for themselves. Try it : you'll feel much better when you quit pouting. In fact,you may just end up going through life in a good mood.
Rating:
Summary: It is about time someone wrote this book
Review: Arrogance by Bernard Goldberg
Reviewed December 8, 2003 Being a self-confessed news junkie, all I can say is that it is about time someone dealt with liberal bias in the major media. Katie Couric is bad enough, but when Bryant Gumbel was on the Today Show the bias was so self-evident that I was dumbfounded that liberals could look me in the face and innocently say, What Bias? The rolling of the eyes, the disappointing sighs, and the askance looks which were exclusively reserved for conservatives. Hey, how about Matt Lauer interview of Charlton Heston. Can anyone out there cite me one liberal that has been treated with such disrespect? Unlike Hilary's vast right wing conspiracy Goldberg repeatedly refuses the attribute liberal bias in the news to a conspiracy. The liberal bias is due to the fact that liberals tend to be drawn to journalism, they attend liberal schools; they live in liberal cultural centers such as New York City. The result is that there is hardly a national journalist who would describe himself or herself as liberal. All their friends, family as associates think like them, so they conclude that they are middle of the road. Hence, the media elite constantly refer to label conservative academics, politicians and research groups as conservations; whereas such groups as NOW, physicians for social responsibility, a plethora of public interest groups and such politicians as Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean rarely are labeled as liberal. The inference that the news audience draws is that those who are labeled as conservation are pushing an agenda, whereas those liberal groups that are given a bye on the liberal label are unselfishly working in the nations best interest The book is very well researched, citing Nexus searches, interview, articles, etc. This is not a rating of a dissatisfied employee, or some conservative wacko, it is a reasoned argument about news bias. The sad conclusion that Goldberg reaches is that news bias is one discussion that liberals will not even discuss. Anyone who puts forth a reasoned argument for bias, is immediately dismissed as a right-wing wacko or as a racist bigot. I could write several more thousand words, but you would be much better served by reading this insightful book.
Rating:
Summary: Right on target again
Review: Bernie is dead on target once again with this continuation of his first book, BIAS. Once more, Goldberg is no right-winger by any means. He's a traditional liberal with over 25 years experience in the "mainstream" media (mostly with CBS). And, he reiterates that he doesn't think there's some "leftist elite conspiracy" to skew news coverage -- it's just that elite journalists are so insulated from most of "real" America that they truly believe their views (liberal) are the norm, and that ideas to the contrary are odd, in the minority, and even dangerous. Why else identify politicians and advocates as "conservative" at a rate magnitudes greater than their liberal counterparts? Why else go to NOW (National Organization of Women) or the NAACP or People for the American Way as "experts" in their fields -- without balancing their views with those groups' conservative counterparts? This time out, Goldberg includes interviews with Tim Russert and Bob Costas (whom Goldberg considers two of the more balanced news/sports-guys) about the bias problem, and at book's end offers several chapters of solutions to the elite media's problem. One of these chapters even suggests that Brokaw, Jennings, Rather and co. move their news operations to a Middle American city so that they'll be more "in tune" with average Americans. It sounds humorous at first, but ends up making a hell of a lot of sense! If you liked BIAS, you'll definitely enjoy this second part.
Rating:
Summary: Arrogance! Oh Brother And How!
Review: I try and abstain from books that are strict polemics, but this book was solid, and echoes what I have really noticed over the last decade & I've never voted republican for President BTW, but it is this: The light in the loafers, limosine liberal, has completely taken over the media & academia- these people have little if any regard for truth. Like trained seals they will blame Koresh entirely for Waco, Oswald in the Kennedy Assassination, acknowledge Lewinsky with regard to Bubba Clinton, the least of his sins- how about all the careers & lives he either tarnished,or destroyed with his incessant womanizing, his fund raising practices with Red China, his dereliction of duty in not wiping Out terrorist camps, the FBI Crime Lab, it was one major cover up after another, and all the Washington Post, or NY Times, can give us is Lewinsky, then they tell us over and over Al Gore is boring, and we end up with an out of control cowboy in the White House, remember the last time we had an out of control cowboy in the oval office? LBJ...thanx elite media
Rating:
Summary: The Truth - Again
Review: Goldberg tells the reader what I and millions of Americans have known for years. I thought I was the only one who thought that the New York Times, along with the major networks, was on the same newsworthy level with the Enquirer and the same ideology of Pravda. It's good to see a respected newsman say the truth for once. I know this because the only paper in my city, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (a cheap leftist rag as well), gets most of its front page news stories from the New York Times and The L.A. Times. It's very obvious that those writers have a leftist axe to grind that goes beyond deception and truth-twisting when they're writing about anything pro-American or about conservatives. Thanks Bernard, for reminding us of what real journalism is supposed be, regardless of what the bratty, elitist children in big media try to ram down our redneck throats.
Rating:
Summary: EVERYBODY KNOWS THE MEDIA IS LIBERAL
Review: The fact that the Western news media is liberal and biased in favor of Democrats is simply factual knowledge possesed by millions of Americans who can read, have access to information, and care to analyze it honestly. What is less known is that the liberal media helps Republicans. How? Over time, so many people have developed factual knowledge of liberal bias, and see that it is a bad thing, that they favor the right. Republicans have always won the White House, and now they win the Congress, the Senate, governorships, and state legislatures. As irritating as it is to hear, Republican media strategists should just let the Left keep lying, at such time as voters make note of these lies and back the GOP as a result. The Left is so bullheaded and full of itself that they do not see this reality, and apparently will not learn any lesons from their repeated mistakes. During the Clinton years, there was a marginal swing towards moderation, caused by a combination of conservative talk radio, Fox News, and the Clinton scandals that could not be ignored. During the 2000 election, the Leftist media actually played it fairer than usual, which helped George W. Bush. After 9/11, they swung even further towards the middle, actually rooting for America, but since the Iraq War the media has become more hateful towards the right than any time since Ronald Reagan, or perhaps Nixon. Despite all this noise, the GOP will gain in every seat of political power in November. The Left will look at all its efforts and wonder where it all went wrong, just as the New York Times' Pauline Kael declared after Richard Nixon won 49 states and 62 percent in 1972, "How did he win? I don't anybody who voted for him." Call conservatives what you want - the Christian Coalition, the Silent Majority, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy - but they remain and shall continue to be millions of patriotic American citizens who register and vote, and they are not found at the same cocktail parties with Pauline Kael. STEVEN TRAVERS
Author of "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman"
STWRITES@aol.com
Rating: 
Summary: Right on!
Review: The author is right on about the arrogance of the elite media like Fox News, the Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal, for if they had not parroted President Bush's false claims about WMD, we would never have entered the ill-fated Iraq War. Instead, we are in a war, which seems to have no end in sight. What arrogance!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: Buy it. Read it. Get ready to pass it around to your friends. Arrogance is even better than Bias. Does anyone know where I can email Mr. Goldberg to congratulate him?
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