Media Critic, Critique Thyself

Eric Alterman's What Liberal Media? is as shoddy as the books it attacks.

Cathy Young from the July 2003 issue

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To some extent, of course, bias is in the eye of the beholder. We are more likely to notice things that irk us; thus, Alterman is exercised over the rough treatment of Al Gore during the 2000 campaign but oblivious to the rough treatment of Newt Gingrich after the Republican takeover of the House. Alterman expresses dismay that Coulter and Rush Limbaugh get away with venomous remarks about liberals, while Goldberg cites some pretty venomous remarks Nina Totenberg and other liberals have made about conservatives.

Right-wing diatribes against the "liberal media" often have an unpleasant whiff of whining. In this respect, Alterman isn't all that different from his targets. At one point he notes that he "earned a grand total of about $500 working as a liberal journalist" between 1982 and 1984, while the young and then-conservative David Brock had access to a well-funded right-wing support network. (Alas, poor Eric: He had to make do with a Carnegie Endowment internship and a fellowship at the World Policy Institute.) Alterman gleefully cites William Kristol's admission that liberal media bias "was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures." Then he proceeds to blame right-wing influence over the media for the Clinton impeachment, the outcome of the 2000 elections (including the Florida fiasco), and the Democrats' poor performance in 2002.

Media critic, critique thyself.