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Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

List Price: $27.95
Your Price: $18.45
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: How do you do ruin your life in three pages?
Review: It's funny how life works- someone decides to go pick up some groceries, their tire blows out, an attractive stranger helps them out, and they get married. A similar thing happened to Bernard Goldberg; a hurricane hits his house, a contractor helps him rebuild it, the contractor complians about a news segment, Bernard writes a news article about the liberial bias of TV, and then, he dies.
Not physically, of course, (How could the deseased write a book?) but professanly.
As soon as it hits- CBS Anchor Dan Rather makes Goldberg #1 on his infamous "Enemies List". (Inspired by his late nemisis, Richard Nixon) Mr. Goldburg then finds himself in the same situation as Jim Garrison of JFK (The Movie), our countries's most powerful elite is after him, and he still vailently tries to complete his public investigation. (about bias in the media)
The genisis of this book is that struggle, which would have made it a nice FICTION novel. However, 'Bias' is non-fiction, and Mr. Goldburg mixes genuine revelations, (Why is so hard for CBS to call the Brookings Institution as a 'liberal' organization, when they have no qualms with naming the Heritage Foundation a 'conservative think tank'?) with pointless referances. (..The Dan [Dan Rather] didn't tolearte dissent.)
Reading the book, I could almost feel his pain as he tried to make amends, apologise, and keep his job, but I didn't want to read emotion and opinion- I wanted FACTS. The pace of 'Bias' is extremly slow and tiring, and some arguments seem ludicrous, yet the book is inspiring at times, and I would ultimitally reccomend it to anyone. It is the only book I know of, that showed the true source of media bias- ABC's and CBS's news personalities are ALL LIBERALS. They can not be objective because there is NO ONE around the studio to voice a second opinion, thusly, when covering an issue, say, abortion- the only political position reported is the one they know personally, and have a hard time seeing as 'wrong' or 'extreme'.
There's no coinspiricy.
There's no vendetta.
And if you dislike bias , remember:
You can vote with your remote.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Follow this up with Real Meat
Review: Goldberg's Bias presents a fine insider's look at how liberal bias infects our news outlets. You might want to consider following this book up with Press Bias and Politics, by Jim Kuypers. Whereas Goldberg presents much personal and anecdotal evidence, Kuypers looked at 116 different mainstream papers and over 700 articles dealing hot political topics. His conclusion? the mainsteam media in American is an anti-Democratic institution.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A slap in the face, from one liberal to another
Review: There is one fact about this book that has liberals and those who whine that there is no liberal bias in the newsmedia steaming mad: that this book was written by a card-carrying liberal, and not by a member of the "vast, right-wing conspiracy." It trumps their biggest defense. And to those who say his arguments aren't backed up, he provides dated word-for-word transcripts and newspaper titles. If that isn't info backup, I don't know what is. And finally, what makes this book eerily unsettling in its truth, is that liberals don't set out to politicize and slant the news, they do it unintentionally out of subconcious ideals, which makes them poor journalists. And the fact that they don't see it yet are being accused (by one of their own liberal ex-buddies, no less) has them steaming mad! This book is outstanding, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is actually interested in the truth, facts, and real news; not political sleight-of-hand presented as factual information.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Well researched, well written.
Review: While the title of this book may lead you to believe that this book is all about the inside of a newsroom. That is not entirely true, but it is close. Mr. Goldberg not only shows us why bias is apparent in the network news room he also picks certain topics(homeless, AIDS, man bashing...) and does a little investigative reporting of his own. I found all of the passages well written and they grabbed my interest. One thing to remember is that this book is not written by a right wing wacko. This is written by a democrat who never voted for Reagan or either Bush. This is just a man who was sick of seeing the slant and the hypocrisy that goes along with it. I recommend this to anyone who has even a passing interest in the news and how it is reported to the nation.
Thanks
T

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: network news BIASED? surely not!
Review: i teach a unit on bias in my social studies classes and have always counted on dan rather's commentaries to provide practice for my students. so obviously i've known about the political slant of network tv for some time. i still found the book to be very informative and worth reading. he does repeat himself too much, and there seems to be a hint of resentment in some of the topics he brings up, but he provides a mostly informative read. is CBS the only biased network? after reading the book, grab the remote and find out for yourself. it could be an eye opener.....

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Truth Hurts...
Review: I had heard much about this book, but I could not for the life of me rememer who Bernard Goldberg was. Then along came C-SPAN and cleared up this little mystery. After watching Mr. Goldberg on C-SPAN, I decided I must buy this book. I didn't know for sure what I was going to get myself into. Many people, from the left, called Bernard a traitor and closet right wing republican. Benard is a self proclaimed traditional liberal. So I was curious as to how the book wouild end up reading.

Generally, I enjoyed the book rather well. Bias makes a very important case, detailing how liberal bias is controling the media today and how this is not some conspiracy, but rather the influence of very liberal editors controlling the news and what we see. Bias provides some very good examples and clearly demonstrates how the media tilts strongly to the left. What is more important is how Bias explains that a tilt towards a conservative bend is not needed, but rather how the job of a journalist is not to give opinons. Rather the job of a journalist is to report the news, something that is lacking in current media circles.

My only complaint is that you get the feeling there are some hard feelings between Bernard Goldberg, Dan Rather and the CBS news conglomerate. This is expected considering they ran Golberg out of town. However, I believes he devalues some of his very well explained arguments by spending too much time attacking Dan Rather.

In the end, it is a very good book and reads fairly quickly. I would recommend this book to anybody who has an open mind. If your far left or far right you may find some problems with what is said, but again that is the point of Bias.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellent information backing up what we already know
Review: This is a great book from a media insider that is not written to "bash" liberals but only to show the overwhelming facts of media bias. The only readers that would be offended by this book are the media "elite" themselves or those that prefer a liberal media. The reviewers that have given this book low ratings because they believe it to be "liberal bashing" are not being honest with themselves or you. Of course, that is what you'd expect from a liberal.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Sadly disappointing
Review: On the basis of the comments from those who recommended this book to me, I was looking forward to a good read based on good journalism where statements would be backed up by multiple sources and specific examples. What I was left with, was a personal diatribe of personally directed insults, insinuations, and one-sided interpretations of the author's personal conversations or experiences with a small number of people within one organization. There are one or two interesting examples. On the whole, however, this book ultimately comes across as the ranting of a spoiled child who wasn't taken seriously by his elders. Some of this was downright funny. I was disappointed by the heavy use of a limited number of personal anecdotes, and the scarcity of documented and referenced examples from a wide cross section of the US media. This book falls far short of making a case for a widespread liberal bias in the media. If you are looking for a rigorous analysis of the misuse of media in this country, don't look here. There are better-informed, more professional authors who have been examining this subject for over 20 years.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ... Now this breaking news...
Review: If, after reading this book, you can watch one of the evening news, and not see anything wrong with it, most likely you haven't paid attention.
I didn't believe my own eyes and ears. Even now, years after the original publication of this book, bias is present in the media, as if the book has not changed anything. To notice it however, you must put your political views aside, and you've got to keep your mind open.
Journalists are supposed to relay the news, the whole news good or bad, just as it is, not as they [journalists] see it. The only people who disagree are the liberals, who as Mr. Goldberg put it: "don't see anything wrong with it."
Buy it, read it, you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very important, UNBIASED, look at bias in the media
Review: There is bias in the news media, but unlike what some right-wingers propose, it has nothing to do with deliberate slanting. As Mr. Goldberg shows, the truth is far worse ... it's all unintentional. The news media is so left-winged that they consider liberal groups so "mainstream" that they routinely use them and reference them as "informed, learned sources." On the rare occasions that right-of-liberal groups are referenced they are labeled as "conservative", "right-wing", or worse. Mr. Goldberg presents tons of evidence from numerous descriptions from transcripts to frequency of certain stories or types of stories in the media. I think the book runs a little long and the last half to a third basically continues the first half to two-thirds, just adding more concrete details. The audio edition also came with an interview with the author that added some fresh material, particularly dealing with feedback about this book. The only significant downside to the book is the way Mr. Goldberg several times mentions the fact that the TV news media takes its cues from the newspaper news (NY Times, Washington Post, etc) but then no suggestion is made about how to address that problem.


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