Bernard Goldberg's "Bias" Against the Facts

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 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, Bias.

Goldberg's latest screed, A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media (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 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.

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.

Comments

[raker]

Bernard Goldberg is a professional disgruntled employee who's finally found degrading niche that suits him. Ignore him.

[LRM216]

Perhaps you should read the book - it's pretty darn accurate.

[Pulemerci]

While the point is correct, it's also moot. Goldberg is correct that the media covered him with kid gloves. President Obama can't be blamed for the media's bias. Even SNL touched on this during the primaries when they showed reporters fawning all over candidate Obama and dismissing candidate Clinton rather rudely. It crossed over into the entertainment field when Oprah became his biggest celebrity supporter. Previously, she never publicly endorsed a candidate for POTUS. While not all coverage was as slobbering as Chris (I get a thrill up my leg) Matthews, it certainly wasn't objective, unbiased journalism.

[JayDDrew]

Goldberg comes across as a man with an axe to grind. He seems to be angry, perhaps because he has been banished to the Netherworld of Fox News due to viewing the media thru a warped lens. Read about him and you find lots of skewed reports of liberal news bias that fall apart under scrutiny.

[lovable]

there is no one on fox who dares dispute the book . or ask him a hard question

[lovable]

lets see if he goes on any show but fox and see how he is interviewed . i doubt if he goes on any other show. fox is safe. territory or him.

[bayman]

I can understand why a fraud like Goldberg gets airtime on Fox, but why does HBO tolerate him on Real Sports?