Review by Booklist Review
Sure to stir the winds of controversy, Rusher's latest book accuses the national media of a pervasive liberal bias, even though many Americans are shifting to the political right. Buttressing his thesis with recent survey findings (interlaced with anecdotes), the publisher of National Review registers a broad-gauged indictment against those who control the nation's chief news sources. Even skeptics will find it difficult to withstand the heavy barrage of evidence of ideological imbalance. More fundamentally, Rusher attacks journalists for their unscrupulous use of anonymous sources and for their distorted understanding of the First Amendment. Many journalists and liberals will not take kindly to such treatment. Some readers will probably wish for a deeper analysis into the cultural and historical roots of the liberal media bias. Others will also wonder about the credibility of the proposed reforms. But this forcefully written book will accomplish its purpose of provoking vigorous debate. To be indexed. BJC. 302.2'340973 Mass media-U.S.-Objectivity / Mass media-Political aspects-U.S. [OCLC] 87-33778
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Conservative spokesman Rusher, TV commentator and author (The Rise of the Right), here attacks the liberal bias he perceives as dominating the American media, both electronic and print. He cites surveys indicating that newspapers, radio and television staffers tend to favor liberal policies in their own thinking and argues that such personal attitudes are likely to affect selection as well as coverage of the news. He mentions instances when the media have displayed what he sees as strident anticonservatism, and he criticizes, among others, the Supreme Court for broadening the media's First Amendment rights. Rusher argues that conservatives can and must systematically counter this liberal edge by enforcing the Fairness Doctrine, internal and external monitoring, takeovers of liberal or centrist organs and training more conservatives to work in the media. This is a hard-hitting indictment of media mores, sure to be controversial. (April) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This is not just another conservative broadside against liberal bias in the news mediait might be the definitive conservative case. By long-time National Review publisher Rusher, it uses vivid examples, interesting statistics, and provocative theories of how bias emerged and what philosophy upholds the bias. Unfortunately, Rusher occasionally forgets that he is advocating balanced presentation and not conservative ascendancy: his descriptions of some historical skirmishes in the ideological wars are decidedly one-sided. Dan Levinson, Thayer Acad., Braintree, Mass. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From the publisher of National Review, author of The Making of a New Majority Party (1975) and The Rise of the Right (1984), a didactic brief against a perceived liberal bias of the media. It is almost two decades since Spiro Agnew's controversial criticisms of the media and Edith Efron's The News Twisters became conservative vanguards for an assault upon the Fourth Estate. Rusher argues that, while the press has not changed in the interval, conservatives have now more or less taken over the halls of power and coopted the future political agenda. This gives added bite to his concern that the media no longer represents establishment opinion, but hands down its own minority version of world events. Rusher uses various techniques to prove his point; one of the oddest is his ""word-counting,"" tallying the number of words pro or con on a particular issue or person. More supportive is his use of surveys conducted among media people--who pegged themselves as liberals or Demorcrats up to 80% of the time. Rusher considers the adversarial role of the media a 20th-century phenomenon, as he does the idea of the confidentiality of sources. Perhaps his most crucial point is that, as the media becomes dominated by large corporations, these corporations can shield themselves via the media they control. More a conservative's ambush than a skirmish in a battle, but nonetheless a cogently written polemic. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
