Former CBS-TV correspondent Bernard Goldberg rocked the journalism world in 2001 with his best-selling book "Bias." It was an indictment of what Goldberg believes to be an unintended but pervasive liberal prejudice in America's television and print newsrooms. Now, Goldberg is back with a more in-depth look at why this perceived bias exists.
In his new book, "Arrogance: Rescuing America From The Media Elite," there is plenty of fresh red meat for those who believe that too many people in the media hold a baseline view of things that runs too far to the left.
That point is well taken, but Goldberg presents a more significant one in "Bias." He amplified on this deeper message during a TV interview with NBC-TV's Tim Russert this past week. The author posits the existence of a "bubble" inside which most established national media live and work. By looking through an elite pair of myopically focused glasses, these media movers deceive themselves that everything revolves around their own business and social circles in New York City and Washington, D.C.
 Goldberg's point is right on target. In fact, his thesis can be expanded to include more than just print and TV reporters, editors, producers and other media types -- and to more than just a "liberal" elite.
America's pillars of power -- be they political, financial or players in "The Third Estate" -- have become so insular with intellectual inbreeding and self-promotion as to leave us wondering if fiction works "Alice In Wonderland," "1984" and "All The King's Men" have all leaped from the written page and fused into a new and twisted reality. It's a plot that features thought control, falsehood represented as truth, and the elite's belief that "even when we lie, it's really for America's own good."
Along the same lines, political leaders often pose as being in touch with the electorate when they are anything but. Take for example the group of manipulative public image handlers who landed President Bush on an aircraft carrier in that silly "Top Gun" outfit and then displayed a "Mission Accomplished" sign behind him they claim was put up by the sailors. Another case in point was Howard Dean's absurd comments that in effect painted all Southerners as rebel-flag waving rubes in need of enlightenment.
In other words, Goldberg's bubble is the true big tent, housing those on both sides of the political aisle. Make no mistake: Everyone from D.C. journalists to most U.S. representatives and senators draw an unstated and perhaps unconscious line in their minds and actions between their colleagues they see every day and those who live "back home." Most of them will tell you they are in touch with heartland America. What they won't tell you -- or admit to themselves -- is that this communion with the common man comes only occasionally, and only on the elitists' own terms.
---Read Townhall.com reviews of "Arrogance" and "Bias"--- Continued... |