Bernard Goldberg uses 'house-of-cards' logic in new book

M E M O R A N D U M

To: Interested Parties
From: Brandon Hersh, Media Matters for America
Re: Bernard Goldberg uses 'house-of-cards' logic in new book
Date: Monday, January 26, 2008

Continuing on with a successful campaign against conservative misinformation spun by known offenders, Media Matters for America has documented falsehoods and red herrings in Bernard Goldberg's latest book, A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media.

Goldberg -- the author and Fox News contributor who once asserted that "women and minorities" have "pushed the newsroom further and further to the left" -- has a new and even more baseless theory about the media: that they've had a "slobbering love affair" with President Barack Obama, despite intense scrutiny put on him during the nearly two-year-long election campaign.

In Chapter One, Goldberg cites as evidence of the media's "pro-Obama tilt" the fact that CBS' The Early Show ran a segment called "Five Things You Should Know About Barack Obama" that featured trivia about Obama. Of course, five days later, the show ran a segment called "Five Things You Should Know" about Sen. John McCain -- a fact Goldberg conveniently neglects to mention.

In another example of purported media infatuation with President Obama, Goldberg echoes Rush Limbaugh by printing badly doctored "snippets" of an interview between Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw. Like his Early Show example, Goldberg's doctored transcript of the interview falsely suggests that comments Brokaw and Rose made about their lack of familiarity with the candidates applied only to Obama when, in fact, they were referring to McCain as well. It also falsely suggests that Brokaw expressed the view that "there's a lot about [Obama] we don't know," when, in fact, Brokaw attributed that assertion to "conservative commentators."

And, in a particularly striking example of mangling the facts, Goldberg writes, "Finally, in the last month of the campaign, the [New York] Times returned to the Obama-[William] Ayers story, but only after McCain and (mostly) [Gov. Sarah] Palin began making it an issue on the campaign trail." In fact, in what was reported as the "first time" Palin raised Obama's connection to Ayers, Palin actually cited the October 4, 2008, New York Times story to which Goldberg refers.

Goldberg's book, which hits bookshelves today, promises to be a "blistering takedown of the media's slavish support for Obama." But if these purported examples are any indication, Goldberg's new book will only serve to further take down his own credibility.

FOR MORE DETAILS:

Goldberg publishes badly doctored version of Rose/Brokaw interview as purported evidence of Brokaw's bias

http://mediamatters.org/items/200901250008

Goldberg falsely attacks NY Times Obama coverage

http://mediamatters.org/items/200901250009

Misinformation starts early in Bernard Goldberg's latest book

http://mediamatters.org/items/200901230017

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Media Matters for America is a progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Media Matters is the first organization to systematically monitor the media for conservative misinformation every day, in real time. For more information, visit www.mediamatters.org.