Is there a liberal bias in America's media? Conservatives have made the argument for years, but former CBS broadcast journalist Bernard Goldberg claims that the problem is so widespread that he was forced to blow the whistle on his own industry. Goldberg says that the problem goes much deeper than a simple "Democrats are good, Republicans are bad" mentality; indeed, it is so pervasive that it's considered a matter of course, affecting every decision made by supposedly "impartial" journalists.

Introduction
"They Think You're a Traitor"

I have it on good authority that my liberal friends in the news media, who account for about 98 percent of all my friends in the news media, are planning a big party to congratulate me for writing this book. As I understand it, media stars like Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings will make speeches thanking me for actually saying what they either can't or won't. They'll thank me for saying that they really do slant the news in a leftward direction. They'll thank me for pointing out that, when criticized, they reflexively deny their bias while at the same time saying their critics are the ones who are really biased. They'll thank me for observing that in their opinion liberalism on a whole range of issues from abortion and affirmative action to the death penalty and gay rights is not really liberal at all, but merely reasonable and civilized. Finally, they'll thank me for agreeing with Roger Ailes of Fox News that the media divide Americans into two groups-moderates and right-wing nuts.

My sources also tell me that Rather, Brokaw, or Jennings-no one is sure which one yet-will publicly applaud me for alerting the networks that one reason they're all losing viewers by the truckload is that fewer and fewer Americans trust them anymore. He'll applaud, too, when I say that the media need to be more introspective, keep an open mind when critics point to specific examples of liberal bias, and systematically work to end slanted reporting. According to the information I've been able to gather, this wonderful event will take place at a fancy New York City hotel, at eight o'clock in the evening, on a Thursday, exactly three days after Hell freezes over.

Okay, maybe that's too harsh. Maybe, in a cheap attempt to be funny, I'm maligning and stereotyping the media elites as a bunch of powerful, arrogant, thin-skinned celebrity journalists who can dish it out, which they routinely do on their newscasts, but can't take it. Except I don't think so, for reasons I will come to shortly.

First let me say that this was a very difficult book to write. Not because I had trouble uncovering the evidence that there is in fact a tendency to slant the news in a liberal way. That part was easy. Just turn on your TV set and it's there. Not every night and not in every story, but it's there too often in too many stories, mostly about the big social and cultural issues of our time.

What made doing this book so hard was that I was writing about people I have known for many years, people who are, or once were, my friends. It's not easy telling you that Dan Rather, whom I have worked with and genuinely liked for most of my adult life, really is two very different people; and while one Dan is funny and generous, the other is ruthless and unforgiving. I would have preferred to write about strangers. It would have been a lot easier.

Nor is it easy to write about other friends at CBS News, including an important executive who told me that of course the networks tilt left-but also warned that if I ever shared that view with the outside world he would deny the conversation ever took place.

 

Bernard Goldberg is the winner of seven Emmy Awards as well as a Peabody Award for excellence in broadcast journalism, and was once rated by TV Guide as one of the ten most interesting people on television. Having served for nearly thirty years as a reporter and producer for CBS News, he now reports for the critically acclaimed HBO program Real Sports, hosted by Bryant Gumbel. He writes occasionally for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Goldberg lives with his family in Miami.

 

Bias by Bernard Goldberg
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