Rating: 
Summary: Not accurate
Review: Until the media deals with Juanita Broaddrick, who Lisa Myers said was very credible and whose testimony caused Tim Russert to throw up, Alterman's fiction is just good for laughs.Bush is attacked at every opportunity on the evening news.
Rating:
Summary: What Liberal Media Indeed!
Review: Let's see...the father of a Delta Force soldier who is posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in Somalia refuses to accept the medal from Mr. Clinton, telling him that he is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief...and it's not reported by a single major media outlet. A Republican Vice President misspells the word potato during a spelling contest after a card is handed to him with the word incorrectly spelled...and it's the lead story that night in 2 of the 3 major media outlets and the second story on the other. Naawww...there's no media bias. What could those members of the vast right-wing conspiracy be thinking?
Rating:
Summary: Not So Final! Lies!
Review: Eric Alterman's badly-researched and unnuanced work is not a good counterpart to the emotional, factually-challenged books that carry names like Carville, Blumenthal and Clinton. Liberals don't like the message -- that there is a pervasive "liberal bias" in the media -- but Alterman backs up every single claim he makes with lies and faulty research, all meticulously documented in a lengthy section of end notes. The facts won't matter to the left-wing faithful, and people who believe Hillary Clinton, clearly don't have terribly high standards of proof. But for anyone interested in a sober look at the press today, Alterman's book is NOT a good place to start.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, truth!
Review: Eric Alterman's well-researched and carefully nuanced work is a needed antidote to the emotional, factually-challenged books that carry names like Hannity, Coulter and O'Reilly. Conservatives won't like the message -- that there is no pervasive "liberal bias" in the media -- but Alterman backs up every single claim he makes with facts and research, all meticulously documented in a lengthy section of end notes. The facts won't matter to the right-wing faithful, and people who believe the likes of Ann Coulter clearly don't have terribly high standards of proof. But for anyone interested in a sober look at the press today, Alterman's book is a good place to start.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, truth!
Review: Eric Alterman's well-researched and carefully nuanced work is a needed antidote to the emotional, factually-challenged books that carry names like Hannity, Coulter and Limbaugh. Conservatives won't like the message -- that there is no pervasive "liberal bias" in the media -- but Alterman backs up every single claim he makes with facts and research, all meticulously documented in a lengthy section of end notes. The facts won't matter to the right-wing faithful, and people who believe Ann Coulter clearly don't have terribly high standards of proof. But for anyone interested in a sober look at the press today, Alterman's book is a good place to start.
Rating:
Summary: open your eyes and listen
Review: One of the silliest myths endlessly promulgated by the right wing is that the "mainstream media" (nowadays that means mostly TV and radio) has a liberal bias. This book blows that myth out of the water better than any other. The ONLY clearly liberal program I find in the mainstream media is Bill Moyer's NOW once a week on PBS. Talk radio is clearly dominated by right wing extremists. TV news seems mostly interested in maintaining ratings and so broadcasts what they think will bring in the most viewers (e.g. programs on missing children). Mainstream media in the U.S. is now, unfortunately, dominated by a few large corporations, and the situation is getting worse by the day. The people who run these corporations are not liberals. Indeed, some of them have a clearly right-wing agenda (e.g. Rupert Murdoch). The people who write stories for these corporations are not eager to offend their bosses. The blame lies clearly with the public, as the book points out: "Because most members of the public know and care relatively little about government, they neither seek nor understand high-quality political reporting and analysis. With limited demand for first-rate journalism, most news organizations cannot afford to supply it, and because they do not supply it, most Americans have no practical source of the information necessary to become politically sophisticated. Yet it would take an informed and interested citizenry to create enough demand to support top-flight journalism...."
Rating:
Summary: A Much Needed Book
Review: Alterman's book is, essentially, a catalog of lies that elements of the right have told in the last decade or so. The right (not to be confused with principled conservatives) has successfully developed a host of "think tanks", institutes, and other organizations to push their agenda. Part of this agenda includes discrediting what they call "liberals" by constant name calling and unsupported assertions. It is continually amazing how the right attributes everything that is bad in America and the world to "liberals." In the view of the right, any Democrat is a "liberal" even though that is simply not true. "Liberals" are in turn equated with all the fringe nut cases that espouse culturally marginal causes such as animal rights or with Jane Fonda's traitorous activities during the Vietnam era. Alterman hits the nail on the head when he talks about how the right became obsessed with Clinton's private sexcapades while completely ignoring the use of government POWER in illegal ways that end up killing people, such as Iran-Contra or Reagan's support for death squads in El Salvador. Much of our TV media is now turning to representatives of the right as "expert" commentators in order to fend off the accusation that they are "liberal." Of course, the accusations continue. In the end, Alterman makes a powerful case that the media does not, in fact, have a liberal bias. This would seem to be somewhat obvious if one remembers the mud Clinton was drug through all 8 years of his presidency and during his 1992 campaign. Remember Gennifer Flowers? Draft Dodging? Troopergate? Whitewater? Clinton created his own problems in the sexual arena, but he was cleared of all other charges. That doesn't make him a good president, but let us at least be honest about what he did and did not do. By way of contrast, why has George W. Bush been given such a free ride by the media? There are many unanswered questions about the President, but the press seems to have no hunger to address them. Liberal bias, indeed!
Rating: 
Summary: A Well-informed Analysis
Review: It is no secret where Eric Alterman stands in the political spectrum. His articles for The Nation have been highly critical towards the Bush administration and its war on Iraq. However, readers should not so easily dismiss this work as more leftist nonensense. Alterman does a much more thorough analysis of the mainstream media than Bernard Goldber's "Bias : A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News." He offers very convincing proof that the belief in the media as being liberal just doesn't ring true. From the emergence of Fox news to the recent firing of Phil Donahue because he was "too liberal," Alterman analyzes and demonstrates that the conservative agenda has gotten (and continues to get) much more media attention than liberal ideology. If you are interested in getting another perspective on the charge of liberal-media, I would highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Blather
Review: Nothing but a cheap attempt at capitalizing on successful books with opposite opinions.
He must have spent a weekend doing the research.
Very shallow.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful and illuminating
Review: Everyone knows there is a conservative bias in the media, even the conservatives. Just look at the way Bush has been treated and you will be convinced. Mr. Bush is the proverbial 'fortunate son.' Given cushy jobs by Dad's friends, elected by a conservative supreme court to the President in Chief, AWOL while in the National Guard, etc...But the media ignores these charges and this book explains why. Every true American needs to read this!!!
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