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Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News Hardcover – November 1, 2001
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Now, breaking ranks and naming names, he reveals a corporate news culture in which the closed-mindedness is breathtaking and in which entertainment wins over hard news every time.
- Print length232 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRegnery Publishing
- Publication dateNovember 1, 2001
- Dimensions6.25 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100895261901
- ISBN-13978-0895261908
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Product details
- Publisher : Regnery Publishing (November 1, 2001)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 232 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0895261901
- ISBN-13 : 978-0895261908
- Item Weight : 1.06 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #683,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #657 in Censorship & Politics
- #1,494 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #1,880 in Communication & Media Studies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news, is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. He has covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 12 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He won six Emmys at CBS, and six more at HBO, where he now reports for the widely acclaimed broadcast Real Sports.
In addition to his ground-breaking book Bias, Goldberg has written four other books on the media and American culture -- Arrogance, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America: (And Al Franken is #37), Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right, and A Slobbering Love Affair, about the news media's romance with Barack Obama. All have all been New York Times bestsellers.
In 2006 Bernie won the most prestigious of all broadcast journalism awards, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for an HBO story about young, poor boys who were sold or kidnapped into slavery and were forced to risk their lives as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates, one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
In 2012 Goldberg won his second duPont for a body of work on concussions in the NFL, the duPont committee saying that, “Correspondent Bernard Goldberg’s interviews are sensitive and probing, moving the story forward. Goldberg and his team investigate the historical precedent of Lou Gehrig bringing to light new information about concussions he suffered as a baseball player at Columbia University and as a Yankee. The reporting raised awareness for the public, the NFL and Congress about this important health issue.”
Bernie has reported extensively, both at HBO and at CBS News, on the transformation of the American culture. At HBO, in the fall of 2000, he wrote the Emmy award winning documentary Do You Believe In Miracles, the dramatic story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team and the most famous hockey game ever -- the game between the United States and the Soviet Union that revitalized the American spirit and helped bring America out of the malaise it had suffered though much of the 1970s.
At CBS, he anchored two prime-time documentaries about how the American landscape was changing. Don't Blame Me showed how the United States was becoming a nation of finger-pointers whose citizens more and more were refusing to accept responsibility for their actions. In Your Face, America was an hour-long report about the coarsening of America, about how vulgar and uncivil our popular culture was becoming.
Bernie has written op-ed pieces that appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, manners, and journalism.
He is also a news and media analyst for Fox News where he comments regularly on the state of the press and television news as well as on politics and culture for the network's top rated program, The O'Reilly Factor.
He is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and a member of the school's Hall of Distinguished Alumni.
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As with all things," as Mr. Spock would say, "each according to his or her own talents and gifts," or something to that effect
I ordered "Bias" at the same time that I ordered John Adams, The No Spin Zone, The Final days and a few other books. When they arrive I place them neatly in order on my shelf and promise that I will get to them promptly. However as my pile of completed books' increases, so does unfortunately, the pile yet to be opened.
For personal and obvious reasons, I moved "Bias" up on my list however and after a healthy dose of Bill O'Reilly, I dove into it. I admit that I did so from a conservative perspective. I make no bones about it, I am right of center, at least the real center not Dan Rathers.
I had long ago decided that the media was biased and left leaning, Mr. Goldberg has vendicated myself and millions of others. It was one of those just under the surface frustrations that millions of Americans feel, know and are disgusted about. However we never had the forum or the ability to prove or spread the word to others. Well, Mr. Goldberg has beautifully done so with intelligence, reason, flair, insight and simply truth. I could hear the collective sigh of relief from 100 million Americans to find, that someone has express in print what they have known for decades. Mr. Goldberg should be the next Time Magazine man of the year! Not a snowballs change because Time is just as left leaning as Dan Rather but it would be a great edition to collect.
I always looked at myself as leaning mostly right but knew I had a moderate eye towards most things. That comes form believing the political spectrum is not a line but a circle, go to far in either direction and you become the other side. I had that inner eye of understanding, compassion and compromise, but that has all changed now in regards to the media. I feel violated by this welcome truth and it will be hard to watch or trust these charlatans ever again in the TV newsrooms, the major magazines and the intertainment industry who are all involved in this deceiption.
I used to believe that I was in the middle and I may actually be there with millions and millions of other Americans. However Dan Rather always made our skin crawl, as did the other major anchormen and anchorwomen on CBS, NBS, ABC and a few other programs. Something did not feel right. We knew we were being pulled in a direction we did not want to go, but it was being secretly and subtly done.
We could sometimes find solace in CSPAN and CNN but were still feeling like outsiders looking into someone else manipulative game.
Then came FOX News, fair and balanced reporting, hard questions, no spin zones and people who would not bow down and kiss the feet of politicians, special interest icons nor the high powered, self-righteous egotistical hypocrites of organizations who were accustomed to having their every word obsorbed as gospel. It was grand to see them squirm. Fox has consequently become the most watched outlet in America, simply because we see both sides laid open for inspection where we can decide. No blatant or subtle left leaning manipulation by "The Dan, The Tom, or the Peter" anymore. Thank God.
As I said I thought I was in the middle, the center, the moderate position before, but after this new revelation and enlightening insight by Mr. Goldberg I realize that Dan Rather's middle is not, in the middle at all. He is, along with his cohorts falsely portraying the radical left as the middle, which pushes the normal compassionate and reasonable right way over into the far extreme right in his opinion, on the irrational progressive left wing politico-meter and thus deviously creates that vast right conspiracy. Filled with people like you and me who are just normal everyday American citizens.
An incredible tactic by Dan Rather and gang, but as Mr. Goldberg says, unprofessional, disgraceful and despicable journalism. Thus making those radical fanatics who sit in the center in his world politically correct and makes the real world, which holds most Average Americans wrong.
Mr. Golderg has wiped away the clouds of doubt that Dan Rather and his cronies have for decades placed between the truth and their dirtied character, and he has pulled aside the sable curtain of lies to expose the soft vulnerable biased underbellies of the major TV networks.
It is all summed up in one sentence in this book. "The sophisticated media elite's don't categorize their beliefs as liberal but as simply the correct way to look at things. They think they're middle of the road-raging moderates-while everyone else (the people who live in the red states that Gerorge W. Bush carried) is on the fringe. It is scary to think that so many important people who bring America the news can be so delusional."
America has had an intuition about this for nearly forty years, but never had the facts, the information or the connections to bring it to the surface. I always called it the great liberal hypocrisy in my weekly columns and the arrogance of self-rightious profession of omnipotence by the far left.
Mr. Goldberg has done a masterful job of exposing the truth that we have all known and is a hero to many millions of Americans. I hope he has sent a wake up call to many, many on the left to look into the mirror and finally say maybe "we are the guilty ones." Self examination as they have always told us, is good for the soul, maybe they should take their own advise. Great job Mr. Goldberg, "the truth will set you free."
Perhaps the most refreshing, interesting and revealing book I will ever read. Finally, someone tells the truth about the media and it's utter disregard for truth, professionalism, honor and balanced reporting.
This is a WONDERFUL, important, thought-provoking book and a GREAT READ...no matter WHAT your political stance is. Before this book was even in the general public's hands conservative talk-show hosts glorified it while some liberals (and news figures) badmouthed or down played it. But the bottom line is: Goldberg is a gifted writer who writes with incredible bluntness and supports most allegations with specific names, facts and quotations.
Goldberg, the modern media's most high-profile whistleblower, became a non-person and was marginalized until he left CBS due to his sin: he wrote a blunt and thoughtful piece in the Wall Street Journal questioning the objectivity of CBS Evening News reporter Eric Engberg's Reality Check segment in which Engberg ridiculed presidential candidate Steve Forbe's flat-tax idea's "Number One Wackiest Flat Tax Promise."
There are two levels to this book. One, woven throughout, is the story of how due to his sin the CBS hierarchy, particularly his one-time friend Dan Rather, shunned him, kept him off the air, and was furious at him. He says one CBS bigwig warned him that the corporation would use "all the big guns in its arsenal against him" if he became too sympathetic. Rather was quoted as suggesting Goldberg, who was NOT a Republican, was trying to intimidate him and, Goldberg alleges, took a "take-no-prisoners" behind-the-scenes stance to undermine him. Even media types outside CBS were not happy with him leading him to conclude that media "elites", which want to report on everyone, don't want anyone to report on them.
The other level is more important: he gives specifics examples (names, quotes, specific stories) of deeply ingrained media bias. Some key ones:
--A CBS reporter in a conference call labelling former presidential candidate Gary Bauer "that little nut from the Christian Group." And no editors listening objected.
--How a CBS producer didn't want images of black prisoners on a chain gang story since it might make viewers think many prisoners were black (which they were)...and similar problems on showing black looters in the Virgin Islands.
--How news producers generally don't like to feature blacks in news stories since it means lower ratings.
--How homeless activists bloated statistics and downplayed the role of the mentally ill, alcoholic and drug-users among that population. How the homeless story is heavily reported when Republicans are in power, then suddenly dropped once a Demcrat takes office. He makes a persuasive case.
--How the news media went along with early contentions by AIDS activists that the horrorific disease put the entire heterosexual population at risk versus specific segments (homosexuals, drug users and those that have sex with them).
--How the word "controversial" often means the reporter/show does not agree with the person or issue to which it refers.
--How conservatives are labelled as such but liberals aren't.
This book has a wealth of SPECIFIC, FACTUAL information...all peppered with Goldberg's blunt reporting, hilarious zingers (too many to count here!), and searing sarcasm.
This should be required reading for anyone who is in or thinking about going into journalism. Ironically, the book's basic set-up is its FLAW. By being so blunt and taking on the issue head-on Goldberg runs the risk (as his appearances on talk shows prove) of being defined by others as being a disgruntled employee and conservative ideologue. He is truly NEITHER: due to his "crime" he ran into a buzz saw of office politics, sometimes subtle corporate retaliation, blatant efforts to discredit him and his motives -- and is clearly angry. But his ALLEGATIONS here are BACKED UP with SPECIFICS.
If nothing else, Goldberg shows how news organizations operate from a ground-level assumption -- a conventional political wisdom. ALL news outlets do (take it from a former reporter, like me): CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN and Fox. In staking out his ground here, Goldberg does too. But unlike others Goldberg's message is "let's THINK about this and let's do SOMETHING to apply the same rules to everyone and be MORE objective." For that he became personna non grata in circles he criticizes, a hero to those who hate those circles -- but his message is a solid one and delivered with all the writing skill of a topflight pro.
Top reviews from other countries
Goldberg makes his case a chapter at a time.
I think Goldberg is more credible because his own views are to the left of center.
It is a quick read but at the same time provides food for thought.







