Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite

• Publisher:   Hachette Audio
• Number Of Pages:  
• Publication Date:   2003-11
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   1586215744
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9781586215743

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bias exposes the culture of narrow-minded elitism in the media--and reveals what must be done to change it.In December of 2001, Emmy Award-winning journalist Bernard Goldberg charged the mainstream media with slanting the news and created a firestorm with his controversial bestseller Bias. Now Goldberg goes beyond identifying the media's partiality and explains how the slanting of the news is all but inevitable in the current climate--and why the media's stars continue to deny the industry's condition. In this fascinating report, Goldberg lays out his rallying cry, unafraid to name names, and prescribes the difficult remedies that must take place if genuinely balanced news is to survive.

Goldberg provides the evidence about what most Americans have known for some time. The mainstream media has a cultural/institutional/philosophical bias to the left. It's the phenomena of group think. Goldberg was on the inside of the mainstream media for many years and tells it as he saw it. He offers criticism for left-wing ideologues in the media but also praises those that strive for balance. Sadly, fair-reporting seems to be going extinct. Between his book "Bias" and this one, Goldberg has done an important service. Although this does at times seem like a right-wing political diatribe, it's just because of the author's passion and the pervasiveness of the bias he had to deal with throughout his career.

This book got my blood boiling and made me stir up some arguments with my fellow journalists. That's right, I'm a journalist and I love this book. Goldberg makes some all-too-valid points that rung true in my world, particularly his argument that newsrooms are very good at adapting diversity for races and sexual orientation but there's no desire to have a diversity of ideas. And let me tell you this is true, even at the smallest of newspapers. I recall working at my student newspaper and feeling like such a minority because I didn't believe in abortion and was for the second amendment. I was never in the "in" crowd because I didn't share the other reporters' views. And at a national publication I worked for, a colleague said "we're supposed to be liberal because we're journalists--everybody knows that." I kid you not. She said that. The bottom line is "Arrogance" and "Bias" are problems in every newsroom. Goldberg brings forth personal accounts with the big boys, such as 60 Minutes Andy Rooney, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, as well as major network and newspaper executives. He talks about how the media doesn't believe their liberal bias exists because their views are "moderate" since they don't socialize with anybody who does not share their views. "Arrogance" even reveals how our top journalist schools step on conservative-thinking students, which I find to be the most disturbing anecdote of this whole book. Of course, I read this three years after it was published and I do think there have been some changes since it was published. CNN, NBC and CBS apparently read it, because their coverage seems a lot more balanced. FOX News also took such a big share of the conservative market, which equals ad revenue, that the other networks had to change. Now if we could only change the New York Times, which Goldberg writes is the most influential media in television because that's where all the networks steal their news from. While this book was fantastic covering the media, I would have loved to read Goldberg's opinion on blogs. How have they affected print and online news?

So many positive and insightful comments have been written by previous readers, I will not try to add much to them. Obviously, I agree with most of them. "Arrogance" does an excellent job conveying the sneering, hypocritical attitudes that MSM holds toward general public opinion, and their deep denial about the situation. In fact, Amazon's "editorial" critique (which you can read above) is testimony to what Goldberg is reporting. In fascist and communist nations, one technique of controlling opinion is to figuratively (or literally) shoot the messenger of contradictory analysis, and you'll get a taste of that from Publisher's Weekly. Goldberg's best chapters include the interview with Tim Russert, who discusses how network sensitivities control and protect themselves from internal criticism, and the chapter on double-standards and outright omissions used to report race-related news (see "Pass the Mashed Potatoes"). He also makes frequent points explaining how MSM use the fantastical argument about a right-wing bias, in order to cover their left-wng tracks. I would have given Arrogance 5 stars except it petered out a bit toward the end, with sarcastic chapters on how the media can change itself - not very serious stuff. However, this book is written as much for the citizen like me, to put pressure on the media, as it is for journalists. They ignore this book at their peril!!

Others here have described this book so well that it's pointless for me to reinvent the wheel, so I'll just say that as good as I thought Goldberg's book Bias was, Arrogance is even better. If you think that the bias in news programs or in the paper is limited to how they handle politicians, read this. It will open your eyes to the many ways the public is being "handled" by the media.

Arrogance by Bernard Goldberg is a truly enjoyable read. Goldberg doesn't waste time trying to create a vast left wing conspiracy tied to Islam or Communism, he just presents the facts as he sees them. As a former insider, he's got the dirt on media bigwigs, and he's not afraid to dish. The liberal bias in the news is causing many people to flee the big three networks and turn on cable to find an escape. Goldberg offers up several examples of this bias and then goes further by coming up with several suggestions (some tongue in cheek) for correcting this slant. He also includes surprisingly frank interviews with Tim Russert and Bob Costas. Goldberg's other books Bias and 100 People Who are Screwing Up America are also excellent reads. He doesn't attack people on a personal level (although you can tell he has a bit of a grudge against Dan Rather) or use hyperbole or vitriol to get his point across. Some books written with a conservative slant make you want to throw up your hands and give up on this country, but Goldberg's books don't have that effect. You can tell he not only loves the country he lives in, but also the profession that he's chosen, and he has hope for the future.

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