Rating: Summary: No Contest in The Media Liberal Bias Review: I didn't read the book but I'm just annoyed at irritating Liberals giving this book 1 star and claiming that the news is not Liberal but in fact Conservative. Forget the content just one secondg and look at the people telling you the news; that should be enough for you to ascertain the liberal bias. The fact that the Liberal Networks insist on looking near and far to find some Black that doesn't speak Ebonics or some Asian without a Chinese accent to bring you the news is proof enough of their Liberal, Multi-Cultural Diversity campaign. Here's the another hint: the rest of their programming! Its always makes whites look like idiots or "haters".
Rating: Summary: This will help you be a better user of the news Review: Reading this book will help you become a better user of the media. You will become a better watcher of news programs and a more careful reader of newspapers and magazines of opinion. Mr. Goldberg does us a real service by taking us into the information industry with an insiders eyes and understanding. He writing style is simple and effective so the book is quite an easy and VERY interesting read.However, if you are a Republican looking for confirmation of a left-wing conspiracy this isn't the book for you. Mr. Goldberg's point is much more subtle than that. He repeats several times in different ways that the news professionals do NOT purposefully go hard on the GOP and soft on the Democrats. What they do they do because they are blind to how far off the center they are. In fairness, this is part of the human condition. Most of us have friends to the left of us and friends to the right of us so we can easily fall in the trap of thinking we are in the middle, that we are moderate, that we are mainstream. Almost none of us really are. One of the limitations of the human condition is our truncated experience and understanding of reality. We have to work very hard to extend our reference points beyond the range of our life's experiences and most people simply don't spend that much energy on that project. This is the source of the liberal bias in the media, according to Mr. Goldberg (if I am reading him correctly). Rather, Brokaw, Jennings, the NY Times, and Washington Post (and others) BELIEVE they are mainstream and do not seek any evidence to the contrary. They simply believe all those Red States are way to the right and never stop to think that being in the middle means being in the middle of the WHOLE range of views and opinions and not just your own life's experiences or those of your associates. Anyway, I think you will gain a lot from the book. The time investment won't be large and it will give you some good thinking material, if you care to use it that way, no matter if you are on the left or the right. You might really be in the middle not many people are really there. The math says so. Most of us are somewhere on a continuum to one side or the other, and we might be on different sides on different issues. It always helps to challenge yourself by seeking out serious views different than your own and wrestle with them. This book provides a healthy dose of that for both sides if they will read it thoughtfully rather than bringing their preconceptions to it and simply look for confirmation.
Rating: Summary: 90 vs 42 Review: I love the people who write that Bernie Goldberg is unsubstantiated in his claims. They claim "studies" have been done to "prove" that the bias is for conservative thought and not liberal agenda. First of all the subject we are talking about CANNOT be proved one way or the other. Secondly if they claim a study does in fact prove it then they do not have the sense they were born with. This claim of conservative bias in the news is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. One need look at only ONE fact to know the truth. In 1992 NINETY percent of news desk heads and congressional reporters voted for Bill Clinton, as opposed to 42 percent of the general public. 90 vs 42, if you cannot figure out that if 90 percent of the folks who run the major news media vote democrat and that they understandbly report the news so as to help the causes they vote for, then you are in fact not very smart. To claim the opposite that these 90 percent in fact report news favorably to conservative ideas is less than intelligent. I do not know why I even bother to write this because if you cannot watch the nightly news and tell that it is almost the voice of the DNC these days, then telling you that Bernie Goldberg, a man who voted for democrats for president for his entire life, is uniquely qualified to show you that all 3 of the major networks news programs are biased, then it is a shame the modern world is so safe for those with low IQs because in an earlier age mother nature would have killed you off before you reproduced.
Rating: Summary: Suspicion Confirmed Review: I was mildly dissapointed in Mr Goldbergs writing style and the organizatin of the book. However it did serve to confirm what I have known forever. It also served as a wakeup call and caused me to realize just how desensitized I (and I suppose many other americans) have become. We have grown so used to this liberal rehtoric that we are accepting it rather than demanding a simple delivery of the real news, rather than the commentators opinion of what the news was or what has the greatest entertainment value. Though obviously not a conspiracy by the networks, this perpetual, liberal slant to the news does over time serve to alter mainstream opinion . That can be very dangerous. For that reason, I believe Mr Goldberg's book is a must read and I am glad to see it on the best seller list. Mr. Goldberg did demonstrate exceptional courage in bringing this issue to the forfront, and I thank him for having enough guts to call it like it is. It is high times we started thinking for ourselves rather than behaveing like the media conditioned robots they would have us be.
Rating: Summary: Inside Scoop! Review: Emmy Award winner CBS News Reporter, Bernard Goldberg, narrates his 'Liberally biased' outbursts of the very secrets of the television network media. Bias is bottomless Intellectual corruption revealed by fearless and courageous reporter. Goldberg has revealed the blunt truth, inside scoop of stories and dared to come forward to portray how liberal Bias infuse bias reporting in network television and trigger hindrance to reporting facts. Issues ranging from homelessness to aids, reporters are going over the misinformation of pressure groups they favor, to the harm of honest reporting. Fairness, balanced and integrity disappeared with changing times in network television. There has been one-sided nature of reporting of the news coverage tilting to the left as Goldberg mentions; which is close minded and journalists honesty have become pawn to liberal opinion. Goldberg tried to voice his say from post to pillar but his critics considered him a disgruntled Reporter and his bitterness with the management made him write the WSJ op-ed story that ruined his career! The television news business is far different from the media print world and far often the primary objective is overlooked with bias reporting in television network. Political correctness in network television creates a sensation ahead of the facts and enthusiasm of the reporters mis-fires the message, often misleading the viewers to create waves over the issue. A recent example is the Riots of Gujarat, the whole print and television media journalists focused on the one major issue and harp over the incidents to raise the heat of news reporting. Balance reporting fell out of gear and the news that shoot and create waves chart to the top and the biggest scoop story of the time would probably not be heard in the evening news. The bias really affect on how people view to see the world! Goldberg's CBS reporting experience made him opine his voice boldly about the truth that pervade the business and his trials led him to pen down 'Bias' with the opening harsh critics of Dan Rathar who regards criticism of liberal bias as disloyalty and after working in network news for 30 years as CBS reporter Goldberg comes out with Bias with names, quotes, reports n facts. Certainly a pick and a concern for every Journalist in network television or print media, the 'BIAS' by Bernard Goldberg would turn a new leaf in reporting facts.
Rating: Summary: Clearly honest and straightforward Review: I bought and read this book recently...and now my whole family is reading it. It is really a great book. It is to the point and seemingly honest in its delivery. I believe that it captures a few key causes for the bias in our mainstream media. Myself, family, and friends previously viewed mainstream media news with disdain and this book provides the final straw for our desire to avoid current mainstream media news at all costs. I will never watch another such source (e.g. CBS, ABC, NBC) again. Furthermore, I feel that I am better armed with the sensitivity to such bias if it crops up in other news sources that I digest. All this as a direct result of the knowledge and information conveyed by this book. Thank you Bernard! My only issue with the book is the chapter on "connecting the dots" which seems to lay a large part of the blame on Arab anti-semitism for the reason behind the 9-11 attack on America. Although I sympathize with his disgust in our media for not delving into the root problems associated with such attacks and white-washing the story, he fails to mention the issues of near treasonous U.S. policy influences by groups like the AIPAC ... and the ADL as well as bad US-Arab relations. That said...such delving into such facts would be beyond the scope of this book and readers are better off reading Paul Findley's book "They Dare to Speak Out" for additional information on such influences. Regardless, this book Bias is a MUST READ, especially right now in light of the problems we are undergoing with terrorism.
Rating: Summary: What a biased book! Review: If Bernard Goldberg wants us to subject network news to scrutiny to determine its biases, he better be prepared for us to apply the same analysis to his book. In this pseudo journalistic book, Goldberg spends no less than four chapters discussing his personal history with network news, outlining how he was frozen out by the "media mafia," and chronicling his personal problems with Dan Rather. Um, Mr. Goldberg, your bias is showing! Mr. Goldberg makes all sorts of claims throughout the book without any sort of documented proof. Even worse, he uses the same techniques he blames the "liberal media" for using. The most blatant example being his claim that AIDS couldn't be widespread because he didn't know anyone personally who had it. This comes just a few chapters after he chastizes an anchorwoman for not understanding why Nixon won the presidential election because she didn't know anyone who voted for him. Media bias is a very interesting and important topic if handled by someone with the integrity to present a well informed, balanced content analysis. This however is a personal tirade by someone getting back at his former co-workers. Don't waste your money.
Rating: Summary: It starts in schools Review: This book should be mandatory reading in our schools in order to teach US youth how to think critically and how to process the news. The reason the media allow themselves to voice biased - and sometimes, as Goldberg's examples show, just plain stupid - ideas is that no one questions anything (correction: ideas do get questioned sometimes -- when they come from "conservative" or "right wing" sources). And no one questions anything because for the last 40 years our high schools and colleges have been thought by teachers like Gordon H. Brown from Sedona, AZ (see his review below)
Rating: Summary: Check Out a Real Study Review: Liberal bias in the media? Not so. In fact, it's just the opposite. This is what a methodical, objective study by Geoffrey Nunberg of Stanford University shows. Unlike Goldberg, Nunberg actually did his homework, performing a content analysis to see whether, as Goldberg asserts, the media "pointedly identify conservative politicians as conservatives," but rarely use the word "liberal" to describe liberals. Nunberg found "a big disparity in the way the press labels liberals and conservatives, but not in the direction that Goldberg claims. On the contrary: the average liberal legislator has a thirty percent greater likelihood of being identified with a partisan label than the average conservative does." Forget the right-wing mythology and Goldberg's unsubstantiated rantings....
Rating: Summary: The Emperor is truly naked Review: If ever there was an icon of credibility for a newsperson, it was the grandfatherly personage of Walter Cronkite. As a kid coming of age with television itself in the '50s, Walter projected absolute truth and honesty in delivering our news. Years later, in 1968, I helped repel the Viet Cong's desperate Tet Offensive and saw them decimated to the point of never again representing a significant factor in that war. Imagine my disbelief when it was then reported that Walter Cronkite had ceded the victory to the vanquished Viet Cong, effectively emboldening a dispirited NVA to continue their efforts. Even NVA General Giap credited Cronkite with providing their only victory of that campaign -- the perception of the Western public, the most important victory despite the lack of any truth to support it. My first taste of liberal-left bias, and how lethal it is to not only the truth, but in real human lives. Equally so with the vaunted right-wing bias of War 2 "news," some of which was presented without even much effort to cloak the fact that it was overt propaganda and not actually news. What Walter pulled as an extraordinary liberal-left fiat back in the '60s has now become mainstream. The expected. The predictable. Goldberg has told it like it is, but is it too late to rekindle a national appetite for the truth? How many generations have been raised-up on such overt distortion since Walter's coup? Thanks, Bernie, but it's hard to be hopeful. The masses have been very well conditioned to prefer form over substance, propaganda over truth.
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