The question of whose interests the media protects—and
how—has achieved holy-grail-like significance. Is media
bias keeping us from getting the whole story? If so, who is
at fault? Is it the liberals who are purported to be running
the newsrooms, television and radio stations of this country,
duping an unsuspecting public into mistaking their party line
for news? Or is it the conservatives who have identified media
bias as a reliably inflammatory rallying cry around which
to consolidate their political base as they cynically “work
the refs?” The media has become so pervasive in our
lives that regardless of exactly where on the ideological
fence you sit, the question of media bias has become all but
unavoidable.
Most of the criticism (and anger) has so far emanated from
the political Right, which has offered us the rather unconvincing
argument that a systematic Left bias is destroying the quality
of news and debate in our country today. Journalist and historian
Eric Alterman begs to differ.
What Liberal Media? confronts the question of liberal bias
and, in so doing, provides a sharp and utterly convincing
assessment of the realities of political bias in the news.
In distinct contrast to the conclusions reached by Ann Coulter,
Bernard Goldberg, Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly, Alterman
finds the media to be, on the whole, far more conservative
than liberal, though it is possible to find evidence for both
views. The fact that conservatives howl so much louder and
more effectively than liberals is one significant reason that
big media is always on its guard for “liberal”
bias but gives conservative bias a free pass.
After reading What Liberal Media? you will understand that
the real news story of recent years is not whether this newspaper,
or that news anchor, is biased but rather to what extent the
entire news industry is organized to communicate conservative
views and push our politics to the right—regardless
of how “liberal” any given reporter may be.
Eric Alterman currently writes the “The Liberal
Media” column for The Nation and the “Altercation”
web log (www.altercation.msnbc.com) for MSNBC.com. In
recent years, he has been a contributing editor to, or
columnist for Worth, Rolling Stone, Elle, Mother Jones,
World Policy Journal, and The Sunday Express (London).
His Sound and Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (1992/2000),
won the 1992 George Orwell Award and his It Ain’t
No Sin To Be Glad You’re Alive: The Promise of Bruce
Springsteen (1999), won the 1999 Stephen Crane Literary
Award. He is also the author of Who Speaks for America?
Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy (1998), and When
Presidents Lie: Deception and Its Consequences, which
is forthcoming. A senior fellow of the World Policy Institute
at New School University, and an affiliated faculty member
in the magazine journalism program at New York University,
Alterman received his B.A. in History and Government from
Cornell, his M.A. in International Relations from Yale,
and his Ph.D. in U.S. History from Stanford. He was born
in Queens, New York and lives with his family in Manhattan.
He can be reached online at www.whatliberalmedia.com.
Only a liberal would be dumb enough to title a book, What
Liberal Media? Listen to just about anyone and the answer
is obvious: “What are you, stupid? Just pick up a newspaper
or turn on your TV.” Should that fail to convince, bemusement
can turn to anger, or at best, pity, as in “There are
none so blind as those who will not see.” America’s
argument about media bias features just two points of view.
The right argues that the media is biased toward leftists.
The other side responds, to quote David Broder, “dean”
of the Washington press corps, “There just isn’t
enough ideology in the average reporter to fill a thimble.”
The idea that the media might, for reasons of ownership, economics,
class or outside pressure, actually be more sympathetic to
conservative causes than to liberal ones is widely considered
to be simply beyond the pale.
—From What Liberal Media?
Praise for Eric Alterman’s Sound and Fury
“Alterman is...a master stylist with a highly sophisticated
sense of humor...Spengler himself couldn’t have put
it better.”
—George Reedy, The Washington Post
“Alterman is a young man with a sword...he amuses and
enlightens. Sound and Fury will be hugely entertaining except
to those sorry denizens of the press whose names appear in
that Dante’s hell, that Balzacian comedy: Alterman’s
index.”
—Paul Berman, The New Republic
“The most witty and sadly, profound analysis of the
debilitating state of American politics published in years...our
next H.L. Mencken.”
—Kai Bird, The Nation
“The best book yet on the insider culture of Washington.”
—Bill Moyers
