BOOK REVIEW: Bernard Goldberg's "bias" against the facts

[Karl Frisch]

A review of Bernard Goldberg's "A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media" (Regnery Publishing - January 26, 2009).

That certainly didn't take long. Just shy of a week after Barack Obama took the oath of office, becoming America's 44th president, the nation's foremost right-wing publishing house has released a new tome by http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/tags/bernard_goldberg">Bernard Goldberg that seeks to trash the supposedly liberal "mainstream media" for being in the tank for Obama.

The three-ringed circus of liberal media bias cryptozoology is nothing new for Goldberg. He's been part of this factually challenged freak show for years. This isn't even his first book on the subject -- he wrote 2001's creatively titled, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1100">Bias.

Goldberg's latest screed, http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/tags/a_slobbering_love_affair__the_true__and_pathetic__story_of_the_torrid_romance_between_barack_obama_and_the_mainstream_media">A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media (http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/tags/regnery_publishing">Regnery Publishing, January 2009), though with a significantly longer title, preaches the same decades-old gospel of bias, refusing at all costs to let facts get in the way -- truth be damned.

Case in point.

In http://mediamatters.org/items/200901230017">the first chapter of Slobbering, Goldberg writes that the media were "championing" Obama and cites as proof a June 2008 broadcast of CBS' The Early Show, which ran a segment called "Five Things You Should Know About Barack Obama," featuring biographical fluff on the then-Illinois senator. Goldberg goes on to contend that CBS' Jeff Glor sounded "more like Obama's campaign manager than a network news correspondent" during the segment. However, like so many other glossy television profile pieces during the long presidential campaign, CBS' report was only one-half of a set. Just days later, CBS would air a segment titled "Five Things You Should Know" about Sen. John McCain, featuring such trivia as McCain's high school nickname, television and movie cameos, and enjoyment of bird-watching and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's fictional character Borat. Not surprisingly, Goldberg's book makes no mention of the McCain segment.

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200901280014">CONTINUE READING...

Karl Frisch is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog, research, and information center based in Washington, DC. Frisch also contributes to County Fair, a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the web as well as original commentary. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook or sign-up to receive his columns by email.

[MADem]

1. Well, IMO, they WERE in the tank for Obama at the outset. Why?

Because they perceived him as the weakest candidate, and figured if he got the nom, he'd go down in flames. I got the idea they were propping him up to shoot him down later.

They figured wrong, though. The "thing" got away from them. They couldn't control the message, because if they said anything untoward, no one listened.

[Demeter]

2. Obama Was the Designated "Cute" Story

The fear of Obama was so great that my local rag wouldn't put a picture or an article about him on the front page (or any page) until his nomination looked inevitable. Now they can't stop writing about this 24 year old local kid who plays golf with Barack. It's funny, and sad.