Customer Reviews

A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media

5 star:		(104)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Bernie Goldberg is always informative and fair in what he writes, but for some reason people on the left can't hear his message and often angrily dismiss him. Also, his writing is often misused by those on the right who believe in a vast left-wing media conspiracy. To set the record straight before I tell you all that is in this very valuable little book, I want you to know that Goldberg is clear that the mainstream media did not defeat John McCain. He says that in the November election, the lefties in the media who were actively and openly pulling for Obama probably cost McCain about a single percentage point. The author explains how three factors that beat McCain. 1) History: the fact that only once since FDR and Truman has America elected the President from the same party three times in a row (Reagan twice and the first Bush once). 2) McCain was ineffective in presenting his case for becoming President and while Palin energized the conservative base, she didn't pull in moderates and independents. Even with these winds in his face, McCain was still in the game until 3) The huge economic crisis just before the election. I think these are good points to remember.

Nevertheless, the fourth estate has a lot to answer for in their slobbering love affair with Obama. Without them he might not have won the nomination as the candidate for the Democrat Party. Their bias was so obvious that it even became the point of parody on Saturday Night Live. What does Goldberg point to in this book?

1) The way the media gave Obama a pass and packaged him as sexy, vital, and basically a rock star, while McCain was treated as old, out of touch, and even a racist. The author points to the difference in treatment each received in "The View" where Obama was given softball after softball and McCain was asked by Whoopie if she had to worry if he was going to make her a slave.
2) The way MSNBC was completely in the tank with the thrill running up its leg.
3) How the media set out to destroy Palin including printing rumors without evidence, but failed to ask any questions about Obama's background.
4) Limbaugh's view of the media treating Obama as "too big to fail".
5) The protection of Obama from Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers except for Sean Hannity and conservative media outlets.
6) The way the media set out to destroy "Joe the Plumber" in order to protect Obama.
7) The acceptance of the lame excuse about Bill Ayers that Obama was "only eight years old" when the bombings occurred and the failure to ask about the Annenberg Challenge or digging into Obama's time at Harvard.
8) The dismissal from the Obama for President plane of reporters for newspapers that endorsed McCain.
9) Charles Schumer and others on "The Fairness Doctrine.
10) The way that some in the press began to notice how little we really know about Obama only after he won the Presidency.
11) Ten questions Goldberg would like to ask Barack Obama.
12) How the Press can fix itself and avoid its slow march to irrelevance and extinction.

There is even more than this, but these are the points that hit home for me.

I think you will find Goldberg's writing style much like his TV reporting style and very easy to read and understand. I recommend the book to you and hope you read and think about the issues the author raises about the media. Remember this isn't really about Barack Obama, but the way the New York Times, the major networks and other established media went beyond its normal bias to actually shill for Obama.

Enjoy.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Without a doubt, the presidential campaign and election of 2008 was a historical time of our lives. I don't hide the fact that I favor small government and believe the president's ultimate responsibility is to keep us safe - trademark characteristics of someone who leans right on the political spectrum. I am also one who relies on the media to keep me informed and regardless of one's politics, you had to be comatose or dead not to clearly see the biased reporting throughout this campaign, all in the mission to ensure Mr. Obama would be elected. As the weeks and months went on, I couldn't believe my ears and anxiously awaited a book covering what I view as the epitome of irresponsible journalism.
Bernie Goldberg absolutely nailed it - from this book's title "A Slobbering Love Affair," to the thought-provoking contents, he managed to crystalize the thoughts that had been festering in my mind for more than 12 months. After the initial pages, I was hooked reading some of the quotes from Chris Matthews...

After Obama swept what was called "The Potomac Primary," winning Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC on the same night, he gave a victory speech when Matthews blurted out: "I felt this thrill going up my leg."

When Obama won the Iowa caucus a month earlier, Matthews was a guest on the Tonight Show and said to Jay Leno, "If you're actually in the room when Obama gives one of his speeches and you don't cry, you're not an American."

One more quote from this same appearance on the Tonight Show is as follows: "Barack and Michelle Obama are cool people. They are really cool. They're Jack and Jackie Kennedy when you see them together. They are cool. And they're great looking and they're cool... Everything seems to be great. I know I'm selling him now. I'm not supposed to sell."

I'm not sure what planet Chris Matthews is from but that is just a taste of what you will read in "A Slobbering Love Affair."

Bernie, this book is great and you'll notice the 5 star rating I gave you... If there were 6 stars to give, I would have done that for this is a classic read and as funny as it is, the fact that unbiased journalism can no longer be expected is an unfortunate drawback that will affect all of us. With consideration for the blatant examples of one sided reporting, the only thing missing from this book is the inclusion of a little sickness bag with every sale. That would have been a nice touch as there were times I needed one. Thank you for writing this book, Bernie - I loved it!

I got Bernie Goldberg's new book yesterday, and read it with great enjoyment.

Today, I heard him on the Michael Medved show, as he had to deal with an incredible array of rude, boorish, and poorly informed callers. Wow, did he hit a nerve

This book is not an attack on President Obama. What the book does attack is the media, the silly, slavish
followers of Obama who did all they could to shape public opinion, and get their man elected. No candidate has ever had the free ride Obama got. The media had a basic rule-----Barrack Obama can do no wrong.

I particularly liked the chapters on Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman. I have never seen any media figures act the way those two did during the election. It went beyond a "man crush." They were nothing but shills and
salesmen for their candidate. Some of their statements were pathetic. Others , many others, were worse than pathetic. Olberman, in particular, came across as a nasty little weasel, a mean spirited partisan who shed all
vestiges of decency.

I came away liking Bernie Goldberg even more than I did after I read his other books. He is fun, funny, and a
shrewd observer of the way the media works----or, in this case, works for Obama. The entire campaign made my blood boil. Going through the book brought it back again, as I cringed at the treatment of Sarah Paliln and "Joe the Plumber."

I like this book. I think it has a lot to say in a small number of pages. Highly recommended.

The author does an excellent job of showing how the mainstream media worked to make sure that history would be made, by electing the first black president. And how they had come to dislike both the Bush administration but also Senator McCain who was to old for their tastes.

Even how they treated Governor Palin, who being from a big state but also a rural state to most Americans was made of fun of, because she didnt boast of what newspapers, magazines or news shows she read or watched. Never mind that she ran/runs a state with more employees and a budget on par with many Fortune 500 businesses. Never mind she wasnt a snob or insider. They didnt understand her, so they dismissed her.

Instead the media had two plus years of listening to a well spoken candidate who like them, was educated at an Ivy League university.

As the author shows, the same media never spent much time asking how someone who hadnt even been a Senator for two years was at all qualified. Or how could someone from Chicago politics be seen as honest. And in light of all the recent news stories about the Governor of IL, one wonders if any of these same media folks have any second thoughts.

We have Dish Network and until November we had CNN and MSNBC, but changed the plan we had, since we simply got tired of people like Chris Matthews talking about how his leg felt when he heard then Senator Obama speak. Same with Anderson and others on CNN, who couldnt hide their belief that Senator Obama was the second coming of Christ.

As a Libertarian I expect the news to report NOT make the news. Not try and sway viewers, but simply report in context, what the candidates say.24/7 cable news has so much time to fill that they often fill dead air time with useless banter.

When I see a news person from NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, MSNBC whom I am told works for the news division, banter on about their personal views on ANY candidate, they lose any unbiased credibilty with me. Maybe this is why revenues are down?

I listen to talk radio, watch tv news (not just FOX) and read presses (online and print). This was easy to understand for me, but this is not why it got a 5.

Why it got a 5 is that Bernard Goldberg took his book Bias and put it up to the next level, being specific and showing the devolution of the mainstream/drive-by media. Everything someone who was attentive to the campaign knew is put in a way that makes him/her feel like this is the first time learning about it. For those who do not know what media bias really is, do read this book...

I got an early copy of this book somehow, and I finished it in 2 days (which is NOT normal for me...)

Goldberg has done it again. He's a media insider who knows the inner workings of the MSM better than anyone and he isn't afraid to talk about it. The book really only confirms what I already know and saw firsthand, that Barack Obama is perfect and has no faults, at least according to the MSM who ignores his imperfection and his faults with wreckless abandon.

Anyone who denies media bias exists, especially after the kid gloves with which Barack Obama is treated, is no different than any Holocaust denier. Ask a liberal if the sky is blue and it will be the color that best suits his argument, facts begone. Bernie Goldberg proves this without question and it gets under liberals skin to no end (as witnessed by the fools who posted the negative reviews here but haven't read the book). Facts to liberals are as kryptonite is to Superman.

Did journalism die in 2008? Absolutely.

So true, I never noticed or believed the bias before, not until I saw it for myself during this election. The book just proves what I already figured out myself. Bush did a great job, the left can only twist, leave out and constantly repeat things they believe he was wrong about, and the public just mindlessly chants the same. They scream in headlines petty things about people they don't like, yet stay quiet, hide or bury things about Obama or his hypocritical corrupt people.

You want to hear more about media bias, watch the documentary dvd "Media
Malpractice" by John Ziegler.

The biased media has driven me to listen to people like Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, Levin, John Beck, Dennis Miller, even Ann Coulter, etc. just to hear the other side, I agree with most of what they say, even just the news on Fox News reports more in-depth factual news. I am hearing more about the wack job Pelosi etc, the real reasons for this economic mess (it's not Bush, who actually tried to stop it).

A news reporter's job is to report and investigate the news with all the facts (not just the ones that make their ooh-aww celebrity candidate look good) and no opinions. That media stuff (probably all Obama's camp)about linking Obama and Lincoln, what the heck was that, it didn't make any sense?

The biased media doesn't report that the problems we have now were caused by the ultraleft including Obama(who made some money from Fannie & Freddie) who pushed to allow for the prime & subprime risky loans. Now they want to shut up talk radio with the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" or they will sneak it in under another name or disguise, they like to resort to dirty petty tactics and brag about them, like attacking the messenger. Don't you dare disagree with the left you will be censored or called unpatriotic, yet it was okay when they did it to Bush and wanted him to fail. Figures. Freedom of speech and freedom to voice difference of opinion on opinion talk shows is the most ultrapatriotic freedom we have.

One book that explains most of the reasons for this economic mess is Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse,
and here is book about FDR New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

While it is written from the point of view of a conservative author, this book does an excellent job of adressing a real problem that should worry every American. That problem being the growing bias existing in the media going one way or another. The Media's primary job as I have always understood it, is to act as a watchdog group for us, the simple, working men. They are supposed to use their fancy press passes and Freedom of the Press to get in to places we are not allowed to go and get the real story on our politicians. Over the past twenty years, I have watched the news across the country degenerate into their own little camps, taking sides with their political parties and thumbing their nose at their obligations to being truly fair and balanced. This book does a good job of pointing out the liberal side of this bias.

That said, the flaws of this book, in my opinion, are just that: they only really show the liberal side of that bias. The author makes his political affiliations very clear and his being a conservative will turn off many liberals that would otherwise read the book. I fear that they will discount this book out of hand and, instead, read the summary of the book - actually read that he interviewed the controversial right wing pundit, Rush Limbaugh, for example - and get so angry about these things that they never even read it. And that would be a shame, because the primary message as I see it is still valid regardless of your politics: the media is bought, whether it has been bought with cash, unjust legislation, or pretty rhetoric, and that needs to be fixed if we are ever going to start getting the real facts about our politicians again.

Goldberg presents a clear, straightforward, well-documented account of how the major media outlets abandoned objectivity, and both actively and passively promoted Obama over McCain.

The facts are here.

If you think with your cerebellum--as a previous 1-star reviewer does--you will indeed be able to run away quickly. The cerebellum, after all, is largely concerned with muscle coordination.

For those of us who think with our cerebrums--the literal and figurative "higher brain,"--this book will serve as convenient documentation of what we already knew to be happening: the transformation of the media from an informative entity to an activist propaganda machine.

News flash. The left-leaning, mainstream media was in the tank for Barack Obama during the historic 2008 Presidential election.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

And thus, when former CBS veteran/current political pundit Bernard Goldberg came out with his media critique, A SLOBBERING LOVE AFFAIR, I thought his book would be an exercise in rhetorical redundancy. The major newspapers and the networks, along with CNN and MSNBC, are comprised of journalists who are decidedly and unabashedly liberal. Unless someone is brain dead--or in complete and utter denial--it's a foregone conclusion to one and all that the mainstream media were nothing more than cheerleaders for the Obama campaign. So why write a book stating the obvious?

So with a twinge of "whatever" I picked up this thin volume with the huge title and began to read Goldberg's witty and engaging style. Before long, he was enthralling me with little tidbits of media bias I had forgotten about; case in point: the April 2008 debate between Obama and Hillary, when ABC commentator George Stephanopoulos dared to leave the liberal reservation and ask The One about his past associations with terrorist Bill Ayers. And outlets like The New York Times subsequently went nuts--not so much at Stephanopoulos, but at Sean Hannity and FOX News.

That's right, folks. You can't make this stuff up.

So with witty and clever anecdotes, quotes, analysis, and interviews, Goldberg gives the reader a trip down Memory Lane that was the 2008 election. It's a fast and entertaining read, but I knock one star off this review because of all the mistakes and typos. (Pretty obvious Regnery was in a hurry to get this book out.) I wanted to wait a while until November 2008 was in the rearview mirror before reading A SLOBBERING LOVE AFFAIR: THE TRUE (AND PATHETIC) STORY OF THE TORRID ROMANCE BETWEEN BARACK OBAMA AND THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA. And I'm darn glad I did, and thank Goldberg profusely for all the chuckles.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning