Alterman, Eric. What Liberal Media? - The Truth About Bias and the News. New York: Basic Books, 2004. 357 pages.

In the preface to this paperback edition, Eric Alterman summarizes his argument: "...that even the genuinely 'liberal' media is not nearly so liberal as the conservatives are conservative, that it is not organized as a political movement -- and that indeed, much of it has been cowed into adopting conservative assumptions and arguments if only unconsciously." Alterman writes a column for The Nation and has a blog on MSNBC.

The hit-and-run style of this book makes it read like a blog, but despite the lack of meta-analysis, at least there are 43 pages of end notes to document the carnage. The best chapter is about economic bias, which includes examples of the pro-NAFTA, pro-globalist, pro-corporate bias of the media. Understandably, this chapter is only 21 pages, and you won't find the word "Marx" anywhere. The Council on Foreign Relations, which has 249 liberal and conservative big-name journalists among its members, along with lots of business execs, academicians, politicians, ex-spies, diplomats, and retired generals, is mentioned only in passing in another chapter. It really is a class war on a global scale, much more than an American liberal vs. conservative struggle. We suspect that Alterman knows this, but as a recognized pundit himself, he cannot afford to say it. In the end, this point that Alterman cannot make is the most eloquent statement of all.
ISBN 0-465-00177-7

Extract the names from this source

Back to search page