Presswatch: The Goldberg Deviation
Corry, John
"Presswatch: The Goldberg Deviation" by John Corry The Goldberg Deviation see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle, George Orwell once wrote, neatly describing the difficulty involved in clear...
...Some of the slippage may be attributed to the rise of cable television, but surely at least some of it must be attributed to liberal bias...
...He said it "set new standards of bias...
...No, we don't sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we're going to slant the news...
...Goldberg also had said that the networks steal just about everything from print, and that if the Times and the Washington Post opposed the flat tax, then the networks were sure to oppose it, too...
...the issue was now Goldberg himself...
...Steve Forbes was supposed to sweep through the early primaries...
...Clinton means well...
...culation loss or network viewership decline could be explained by any leftish bias or partisan tilt...
...They voted...
...That would mean more revenue for Washington," whereupon he barked again: "That was called supply-side economics under President Reagan —less taxes equal more revenue...
...Otherwise," he said, "when some particularly absurd belief is exploded by events, one may simply forget that one ever held it...
...pause now to observe that in 1980 network news broadcasts reached 41 percent of all households...
...Some six out of ten dittoheads said -they had very little confidence in the news media...
...Actually, he was overstating...
...This is also in front of one's nose, even if the media elite is in denial...
...The press was just being the press, and anyway it already was talking about how it might do better in the future...
...Sensible man that he was, he suggested that as a help, we keep a diary of our opinions...
...A sidebar in the series was devoted to Limbaugh's dittoheads...
...Ordinarilythe paper gives fulsomecoverage to internalproblems at CBS...
...it only upheld the old standards...
...They also were sunnier than the general population, and showed more trust in other Americans...
...The aftermath was intriguing...
...In reallife economics, however, as opposed to CBS's ersatz kind, the flat tax has won the support of any number of mainstream economists, among them at least three Nobel laureates...
...Orwell was writing about political predictions—usually they are wrong, he said—and what he called our "secret belief" that they never have to be tested against reality...
...There was, of course, no discussion of any of Goldberg's specific charges...
...Bob Dole was pronounced dead after he replied to Bill Clinton's State of the Union...
...Forbes nor any other flat-tax proponent is suggesting we increase spending...
...Conduct like his could not be tolerated in a news organization...
...There was no way the Times would touch that, either...
...last year they reached only 28 percent...
...None of this was true, and since hardly anyone, including the people who make them, takes press predictions very seriously anymore, probably it did not matter...
...As proof, Engberg turned again to Gale...
...You may make of that what you will, but it should be right in front of your nose that they recognized liberal bias...
...That was true...
...We don't have to...
...They did draw a line, though...
...There are rules about these things, and the rules are written in fire...
...Time, in a review by Walter Isaacson, its managing editor, called the book "devastatingly reasonable...
...That suggested something like a cabal...
...A train wreck, say, or a hurricane, does not lend itself to analysis...
...One economist suggested, before we put it in, we should test it out someplace-like Albania...
...It discussed what was wrong with the media...
...They're talking about me...
...You cannot imagine it, of course...
...It simply would not be done...
...Liberal bias, apparently, does not exist, save in the fervid imaginations of right-wingers...
...Forbes, a rich Republican with a rabbity grin, is by definition a little wacky...
...Goldberg told Howard Kurtz that he had "tried to raise a serious issue," but that "nobody in-house is willing to talk about that issue...
...They are fine when they handle breaking news...
...He advocated something called "public journalism," a kind of community outreach program that has less to do with reporting the news than it does with setting the public agenda...
...He did not have the press in mind when he wrote this, although obviously he might just as well have...
...In the March-April issue of the American Enterprise, Michael Barone writes that when he suggested on CNN's "Reliable Sources" that the bias was driving away network viewers he was "shouted down in a barrage of protests from the other panelists-Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, Ellen Hume, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, and Bernard Kalb, formerly of CBS News...
...He said that Goldberg "simply has stabbed this guy"-Engberg-"in the back...
...Return now to Goldberg's demolition of Engberg's "Reality Check...
...The findings were dreary...
...He was...
...The ranks closed against the apostate...
...It is almost always wrong when it makes predictions, and when reality intrudes, it merely shrugs, and then goes on to make more predictions...
...It comes naturally to most reporters...
...Gale answered as expected: "It's perfectly fair to say that...
...For, as Bernard Goldberg, a CBS correspondent, wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "The old argument that the networks and other 'media elites' have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it's hardly worth discussing anymore...
...Is it fair to say the last time we tried something like this," he asked, "we ended up with these hideous deficits...
...Ordinarily the paper gives fulsome coverage to internal problems at CBS, but this time it provided not a jot or a tittle...
...Goldberg cited a CBS Evening News' "Reality Check" by his colleague Eric Engberg as a particularly egregious example...
...They all assured me," Barone writes, "that not one jot or tittle of newspaper cir 44 The aftermath wasintriguing...
...They knew what was going on in Washington...
...Four out of ten could not name the vice president of the United States...
...Americans, the poll found, are losing trust in the federal government and in virtually all institutions...
...so note now that the Post recently ran a six-part series based on a poll it had conducted with the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation and Harvard University...
...Alienated viewers turn elsewhere for news...
...The issue was no longer biased journalism...
...Can you imagine, in your wildest dreams," Goldberg wrote, "a network news reporter calling Hillary Clinton's health care plan `wacky...
...The Times did not want to touch it...
...Americans are also spectacularly uninformed...
...That meant, presumably, that Pat Buchanan would never be able to rise above single digits...
...Newsweek said it was "important and lucid," and accompanied its story with a symposium on the role of the media...
...For onething, the New YorkTimes ignored thewhole thing...
...Engberg, though, ended his doltish piece this way: "The fact remains: The flat tax is a giant, untested theory...
...Give the news organizations room to maneuver, though, and they will interpret things, probably incorrectly...
...In fact, most major news organizations try to do that already, and it is why so many people dislike them...
...Engberg had begun his examination of Steve Forbes's flat tax with the words "scheme" and "elixir"—"conjuring up images of Doctor Feelgood selling worthless junk out of the back of his wagon," Goldberg wrote—and then he showed Forbes saying that the economy can grow twice as fast if we remove "obstacles, starting with the tax code...
...When Goldberg said the networks and other media elites had a liberal bias, he had cut too close to the bone...
...Can you imagine any editor allowing it...
...The Washington Post, however, did run a story...
...News organizations, in effect, would determine what belongs there and what does not...
...But the Brookings Institution, Goldberg noted, was not identified as a "liberal think tank," even though CBS insists that the Heritage Foundation, say, be identified as "a conservative think tank...
...Breaking the News, by James JOHN CORRY is The American Spectator's new senior correspondent...
...Goldberg also noted that Engberg, a la David Letterman, said that "Forbes's number one wackiest flat tax promise" is his belief that it would give parents "more time to spend with their children and each other...
...Probably they are the kind of people who listen to Rush Limbaugh...
...Deference must be shown...
...They were more likely to have college diplomas than the rest of the general population...
...The liberal Mrs...
...I have failed miserably...
...PRESSWATCH by John Corry The Goldberg Deviation „ o see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle,” George Orwell once wrote, neatly describing the difficulty involved in clear thinking...
...The fury of their denials, however, convinced me I was on to something...
...Economists, he said, "say nothing like that has ever actually happened...
...The Post reported that "a top CBS official, who declined to be identified"-presumably Andrew Heyward, the president of CBS News - did admit that Engberg's piece was "flawed," although he denied that it was an example of liberal bias...
...Engberg went on: "And if we try it again, your fear is...
...Fallows, was well received...
...Tom Brokaw said on "Reliable Sources" that it was helpful to have "vigorous discussion" about journalistic issues and so on, but that if he were a member of CBS's management he would be forced to tell Goldberg to walk...
...On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, the New York Times announced on page one that television ads had killed off grassroots campaigning...
...Worse, he pointed out, Engberg then showed Forbes saying, "A flat tax would enable this economy to grow...
...He was right about that, although his principal prescription for making things better was terrible...
...The American Spectator • April 19 9 6 47...
...Unlike most of their fellow citizens, they were politically engaged...
...Bob Schieffer, CBS's chief Washington correspondent, said Goldberg's charge was "wacky" and "bizarre," and suggested that he resign...
...A reporter turns on one of his own...
...This is in front of one's nose all the time now...
...half did not know whether he was a Republican or Democrat...
...For one thing, the New York Times ignored the whole thing...
...Two in three could not identify their own congressman...
...As everyone knows, our job is to report, to explain, to illuminate, to pierce the facade," Mike Wallace said helpfully...
...Fallows had argued that the press concentrated on mindless conflict rather than substantive issues, and that it substituted cynicism for skepticism...
...Apple of the Times agreed...
...Then Engberg barked, "Time out...
...As proof, he offered up William Gale of the Brookings Institution, who said, "It doesn't seem plausible to think we're going to have a whole new economy or economic Renaissance Age due to tax reform...
...It didn't work out that way...
...Hardly anyone could identify the Chief Justice...
...And so it went...
...And Gale replied: "...that we end up with the same problem again...
...And to the best of my knowledge," he wrote, "neither Mr...
...46 April 199 6 • The American Spectator In his Journal piece, Goldberg pointed out the obvious: that the "hideous deficits" might just have come about because of increased spending...
Vol. 29 • April 1996 • No. 4
