Bernard Goldberg: "[W]omen and minorities" have "pushed the newsroom further and further to the left"
On The O'Reilly Factor, discussing what Bill O'Reilly perceived as the waning influence of "major elite media institutions," Bernard Goldberg asserted: "[W]hen women and minorities came into journalism, they pushed the newsroom further and further to the left. Everybody agrees that minorities are overwhelmingly liberal in this country, and so are young women." Goldberg later stated: "[T]he point I was trying to make ... is that this problem didn't start last week or the week before. Journalism has been moving further and further to the left. It's a good thing that we have women and minorities in the newsroom. That's the good part. The bad part is that by moving further and further to the left, they've been eroding trust in journalism for a long, long time."
During the October 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, discussing what host Bill O'Reilly perceived as the waning influence of "major elite media institutions," Fox News contributor Bernard Goldberg asserted: "[W]hen women and minorities came into journalism, they pushed the newsroom further and further to the left. Everybody agrees that minorities are overwhelmingly liberal in this country, and so are young women. Ann Coulter just said if women weren't allowed to vote, the Democrats would never win another election. That's the atmosphere in which this stuff with Media Matters is allowed to thrive." Goldberg continued: "I'll give you a solution. News executives are willing to jump through hoops in the name of racial and ethnic diversity. They ought to jump through a few hoops and start an affirmative-action program for conservative journalists."
In response, O'Reilly stated: "I don't know if it's the fault of women and minorities. I think it's the fault of bad and corrupt management at the major elite media institutions." Fox News' contributor Jane Hall added: "Well, I think it's hard to plot, you know, the ratings of CNN, you know, and blame women, blame minorities, blame their depiction, those stories about Rush Limbaugh."
Later in the segment, Goldberg stated: "Bill, the point I was trying to make, with all due respect to both of you, is that this problem didn't start last week or the week before. Journalism has been moving further and further to the left. It's a good thing that we have women and minorities in the newsroom. That's the good part. The bad part is that by moving further and further to the left, they've been eroding trust in journalism for a long, long time."
From the October 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: The New York Times, which was unfair to Limbaugh this week, as was CNN, MSNBC, and the Los Angeles Times, is at the lowest stock price in 10 years. The network news, ABC, CBS, and NBC, have lost 40 percent, 40, four zero, of their audience since September 21, 1998 -- nine years ago.
So I'm saying to myself, "I think it's almost over here." What do you think?
GOLDBERG: This problem has been a long time coming. Journalism today is a lot different than it was, let's say in the 1950s and even the 1960s. And before everybody says, "Yeah, that's right, and it's a good thing," let me say I agree, I agree up to a point. But back then, there were reporters, some of whom went to college, some didn't. Some people were blue collar, some people came from well-to-do families. Some people were Democrats, some people were Republicans. A lot of journalists served in the military. There was diversity of opinion back then, which was very important, but there was no other kind of diversity.
But then, Bill, when women and minorities came into journalism, they pushed the newsroom further and further to the left. Everybody agrees that minorities are overwhelmingly liberal in this country, and so are young women. Ann Coulter just said if women weren't allowed to vote, the Democrats would never win another election. That's the atmosphere in which this stuff with Media Matters is allowed to thrive.
And I'll tell you -- I'll give you a solution. News executives are willing to jump through hoops in the name of racial and ethnic diversity. They ought to jump through a few hoops and start an affirmative-action program for conservative journalists, because otherwise, the numbers you gave, these are going to be seen as the good old days next year and the year after that.
O'REILLY: Well, Jane, I don't know if it's the fault of women and minorities. I think it's the fault of bad and corrupt management at the major elite media institutions. But there is no question that the last two weeks focusing in -- and remember, news watchers, consistent news watchers, people who watch this program and others, they're smart. Dummies watch the dancing shows and the cha-cha shows.
Not -- you don't have to be dumb. But the intelligent Americans -- all of the polls show, all the research shows this, Jane -- watch news, lock in on news, and they know when something's brutally unfair. They get it. All right? And in the last 10 days -- I mean, CNN particularly, it's startling, it's stunning, the audience loss over there. And I -- it's got to be. There is no other thing in play other than their attacks on me and Limbaugh and other ridiculous things that they've done in the last couple of weeks.
JANE HALL (Fox News contributor): Well, I think it's hard to plot, you know, the ratings of CNN, you know, and blame women, blame minorities, blame their depiction, those stories about Rush Limbaugh.
I mean, there's the Internet, there's cable news that was invented 20 years ago, there's the power of Fox News. I would take a different tact [sic] on it. I think what is happening is causing a share of audience loss is the fact that shows like yours, which mix opinion and news, are appealing to people. And that is why people are seizing on the symbol of you --
O'REILLY: But don't they -- don't they want --
HALL: --and Rush Limbaugh because they want to write and talk about it.
I also think while we are blaming things, blame Congress.
[...]
GOLDBERG: Bill, the point I was trying to make, with all due respect to both of you, is that this problem didn't start last week or the week before. Journalism has been moving further and further to the left. It's a good thing that we have women and minorities in the newsroom. That's the good part. The bad part is that by moving further and further to the left, they've been eroding trust in journalism for a long, long time. This is just the most recent example.
I guarantee you, in two weeks, you'll have another example.
HALL: But Bernie, there's also the fact that --
O'REILLY: Wait a minute, Jane.
HALL: -- people from the right beating up on the mainstream media --
O'REILLY: No, no, no, no, Jane.
HALL: -- for stories that I think are a lot fairer than you guys give them credit for.
O'REILLY: Well, look, it doesn't make any difference because you have the two largest traditional targets in the country, Limbaugh and O'Reilly, being the victims. And again, they could have done this in a much better way, because they chose things that we could both illustrate that were dishonest. It was false.
GOLDBERG: This isn't why they're near death. They are near death because of their behavior for --
O'REILLY: I agree with that.
GOLDBERG: -- 25 or 30 years now.
The other right-wing media mogul you should worry about
Palin's book and Obama's bow: a media week to forget
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
"Women and minorities tend to be liberal."
Disaffected women and minorities, you ass.
"...eroding trust in journalism.."
McSqueezme? Trust has eroded in journalism because it seems everybody has a political agenda, every channel has 80 nutjob commentators about each story they run, and every other story is some sort of meaningless culture/society story instead of "by the way, if you eat Topps meat, you may die".
"...every other story is some sort of meaningless culture/society story..."
If you haven't seen this yet, you may be interested in seeing a newswoman's insight into what has gone on:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100307F.shtml
Very impressive DM.
Thanks for reminding me to quit spending so much time posting here and pay attention to the truthout.org in my email box. The following cartoon is cute:
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blpic-liberalmedia.htm
"The bad part is that by moving further and further to the left, they've been eroding trust in journalism for a long, long time."
Now, THAT's misinformation. Trust in journalism is eroding because the press has become lazy and corrupt. The founding fathers gave the press protection from government in the First Amendment. Why do you think they did that, Bernie?
Gee, Bernie, since moving "left" makes the press untrustworthy, whom do you trust? FOX News? Reverend Moon's Washington Times? Rush Limbaugh?
Bernie's a pathetic, whiny putz.
So if that's so true, why is fox overstaffing all of their news shows with women?
I mean, are you complaining? hehe.
Oh no, they are definitely babes. Just wondering why a news company that disdains women would put on token babes w/big "hands" to regurgitate fox talking points.....
oh, never mind.
What women? Do you mean the eye candy that read news updates in between all those male hosted Fox super shows?? Seriously I haven’t watched Fox for years now, are there any female new analysts over there like Bill and Sean?
Oh lynn, you know I'm referring (slyly, mind you) to the fact that fox hires women with big "hands"... =)
Way to many blond women on Fox, must be 40 or more. My fave Uma Pemmaraju.
http://www.gogomag.com/talkingheads/foxnews_f.htm
Jesus, easily half were blondes!
Eh, keep your Uma, Tweak. I'm a Jackie Gutfeld guy. Experience.
Well, duh! If it wasn't already slanted to the right, that wouldn't be necessary, and it wouldn't be happening.
Another way to phrase this: White males push newsrooms further to the right! (Wonder when we'll see THAT story.)
also, women and minorities, together, equal.....wait for it...THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS.
So all you babies at fox can go tell it on the mountain for all I care.
"The bad part is that by moving further and further to the left, they've been eroding trust in journalism for a long, long time."
Yep, yep, you just can't trust those minorities and women.
GET ME AN ICED TEA M...F...ER!!!!
His statement is an example of the standard bigotry one hears on Fox News. He could have gone for the trifecta and mentioned gays in the same sentence.
Did you see how Bernie did that funny backpedaling thing at the end of that. Bernie’s career stalled and he blames everybody else. It's because he's a conservative and of the minorities and women that have been affirmed in the news rooms. Bernie is just another angry whiny Fox Conservative and I think that anger stems from a broken heart caused by his ex the mainstream media. Actually Bill and Bernie were "jilted" by the same beau so now their plotting their revenge.
I agree, Lynn. You know things are bad when O'Reilly and Hall backed away from Goldberg's theory that journalism has moved far to the left because women and minorities are hired more now than they were in the 50s and 60s. I wish Jon Stewart will invite Goldberg back on the Daily Show so Goldberg can get slapped around a bit -- though I'm sure it wouldn't knock any sense into him.
Actually, Goldberg's career took off after he exposed the liberal bias of Dan "Phony Marine" Rather and others in the mainstream media.
Goldberg WISHES his career had taken off he is a never was.
I wonder how he's going to try to spin this one. "They took two statements two words apart and it was all out of context! I said I like minorities and women before saying they're eroding trust in the newsroom!"
Bernie - that object in your mouth is your foot...again.
The real problem is the BillO's and the Goldbergs of the world who pretend to be journalists.
sure. that's why the media adopts a republican talking point every presidential election. gore is a liar. kerry flip-flops. dean was crazy. now, it's going to be hillary is calculating. and then there's only ten thousand radio stations carrying right wing talk, some of it having fractions of a point for audiences.
Easy fix... No more women and minorities in journalism. Put it in the Patriot Act...done.
More FOX Lies. The media has gone further and further to the RIGHT and is now packed with racists and mysognists.
Short version: women and minorities should be allowed equal rights in the media, but only if they agree with me personally. I am an important man. I write books. Fear me.
Oh, Bernard. Longing for the days when right-wingers bitched about the JEW-controlled media? To paraphrase Lewis Black, just take some time outta your Jew-Jew-JEWY day and ask yourself.
No, better not. You might run into yourself, which I wouldn't wish on you -- either of you.
As a competitive ballroom dancer, I have to give O'Reilly a major M-F-er on that "Dummies watch the dancing shows and the cha-cha shows."
WTF??? (And I don't mean Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot!)
As compared to the brilliant programming O'Reilly has on? Body Language "experts"? "M-F-er I want more iced tea"? "Daily Kos is like the Nazis...it's like the Ku Klux Klan"? Underage girls wrestling in lube?
And he's complaining about a show in which people work hard, try to meet goals, and are friendly and supportive of one another?!?!?!?
What you describe is rank socialism. Bildo don't do socialism -- even though the punk is COMPLETELY DEPENDENT on the PUBLICLY-OWNED airwaves.
I, as an African American Woman, have not seen any leftward trend in the New Media. Because " the left " is always demonized Goldberg is just trying to spread more hate, this time against Woman & minorities. I am a member of both groups that the Hate Right is demonizing and I hope that America can see through Ultr - Right and resist their Jihadist mentality. Beyonce Welch - A Proud Catholic African American Liberal.
BeyonceWelch --
Good on ya, BW. Goldberg, despite his heritage, is just an old-school bigot, no matter how he tries to couch it. What a punk.
I am in your corner and I'm --
A Fish-Belly-White Fugly Male Middle-Aged Scandinavian-American Atheist. Or something like it.
Love your posts Beyonce. By the way we seem to share the same last name. Good for us both
I'm with you Jonny,
But I'm just, A Fish-Belly-White Fugly Male Past Middle-age Irish-German-American, non-Atheist. Or something like that.
Power to the People!!! :-)
Seriously, I find it hard to believe that anyone on Fox can even say the word "journalism" without their head exploding like that dude in "Scanners."
May I send my love, admiration, and gratitude to all of the wonderful people & true Americans who have posted in response to my little post. Americans United can end Hate. THANK YOU again - Beyonce.-- Solon - WELCH IS a BEAUTIFUL last name !! Love !
I bask in the warmth of yer thanx -- but I take no credit for being sane.
That's another question entirely ....
if you look up in the dictionary, bitter old man....bernie's picture is there.
after that comment, i wonder if he still has a job on hbo, as bryant gumbel is his boss on hbo, and many of the reporters on the show are minorities and women.
burn every bridge bernie.
Bernard Goldberg is an idiot. But Fox News likes people like Goldberg to cater to their noose hanging, sheet wearing, Confederate flag-wearing audience.
IF THAT IS THE CASE THEN FOX NEWS SHOULD BE A LIBERAL STATION!!!!! ALL YOU SEE ON THAT SHOW IS A BUNCH OF WOMEN.
AND FOR MINORITIES, WHAT MINORITIES? I CAN COUNT THEM ON ONE HAND
First, no matter what the topic, claiming ANYTHING is a PROBLEM and "all the fault of women and minorities" ... no matter how you try to sugar-coat or soft-pedal it ... is blatant racism and sexism. Nice try, Bernie, your true colors come shining through. You misogynist bigot, you.
Second, note in this clip that O'Reilly claims for himself and Rush Limbaugh the coveted "VICTIM STATUS". Try to think of Limbaugh and O'Reilly, making MILLIONS for talking a few hours a day in air-conditioned comfort, their only job to attempt to influence people by broadcasting their personal opinions. Try to picture these two "men" SELF-IDENTIFYING by the following characteristics:
VICTIM defined: “A weaker person taken advantage of; A person oppressed by someone of greater power; A person who is tricked or swindled, deceived or cheated; An unfortunate person who suffers injury, loss, or death as a result of a voluntary undertaking.”
Are O'Reilly and Limbaugh convincing VICTIMS? Are they weak, able to be taken advantage of, oppressed by power, able to be tricked, swindled, and cheated? Are they unfortunate? Have they suffer injury, loss, or death?
Poor, poor Bill and Rush, VICTIMS ... and it's so UNFAIR! (Adding delicious irony, BOTH men are fond of saying, "Life isn't fair." And yet, they want to demand "fairness" for THEMSELVES. What utter wussies!)
Bernard Goldberg is the same jerk who wrote two books complaining about the media elite: Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News and Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite. However, Bernard Goldberg works for Fox News -- a company owned by Rupert Murdoch "the billionaire tyrant". It doesn't get more elite than Rupert Murdoch. Goldberg is probably just mad at all us "coloreds" because a black or a Hispanic woman turned him down for a date or laughed at his shriveled penis.
Wait a minute! Goldberg is a Jewish name. The last time I checked Jews are a minority in this country. So I guess it's OK to be a minority, if like Goldberg you are willing to sell out to Rupert Murdoch and toady up to the Neocons who run the FCC. I guess it is OK to be a woman if you are a loud mouthed propagandist like Ann Coulter or a lap dog yes woman like Condoleezza Rice.
Chavez,
Have you read either book? I thought the first one was interesting. It's been a while but from what I remember Goldberg's complaint was that Dan Rather had his own group of yes-men and you had to hoe the Rather line or you didn't see air time.
Of course that is not the same as his thesis on why newsrooms are in his opinion, more liberal now. In any case, he's seen the inside of network news and made lemonade out of his departure from CBS.
Personally, I fully support Goldberg's plea that publishers "start an affirmative-action program for conservative
journalists". We could start working on that problem right after we resurrect all the other long-dead and/or mythical creatures that we so sorely lack. The polka-dot unicorns were my favorite, but my kids seemed to favor fat purple-ish dinosaurs; oh, and the Easter bunny, too. But we must have priorities in such a vast undertaking, so I am kind of thinking that we leave for last those whose very existence invokes internal contradiction, and whose progenitors must also have been mythical enemies.
I must admit that I do admire the verbal free-form that allows such reciprocally antagonistic concepts to be seated at the same table, and Goldberg manages to present them side-by-side. When I tried that, they just jumped to separate lines.
Who is Bernard Goldberg and why should anybody care? Limbaugh and O'Reilly as victims? Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive...
Yer right, Bernie! Let's name all of the OWNERS and TOP management of the media entitles who are female or minorities: ok...there must be hundreds of them...you know, the ones who have all the power...hmmm...just a minute, I'm sure we can come up with a long, long list...
They seem to act like "women and minorities" are less worthy of journalistic integrity than white males.
Ok women in news are untrustworthy because most women are liberal, and therefore untrustworthy. And vice-versa, men in news are trustworthy because most men are conservative and therefore trustworthy.
The undercurrent of this crazy, goofy premise: women = untrustworthy, men = trustworthy.
The right is going after women now. Holy chit and shinola.
Accepting all the presuppositions of his argument...
<><>If indeed women and minorities are liberal then thank god the ones in journalism are pushing media further left. After all, it would certainly be shameful if mass media was only a reflection of the opinions and worldview of white males. Perhaps he is unaware that there are more women and minorities in the US than white males.
<>Appearantly Goldberg thinks that perspectives of women and minorities are invalid and unimportant - that they should be in the newsroom but only if they are prepared to assimilate their personality and worldviews completely to those of their bosses. If this is the case, then it would seem that he believes that women and minorities constitute some less intelligent form of humanity incapable of understanding which views and positions are in their best interest and that this stupidity must be contained.<> <>