200: Blinded by the Right by David Brock

Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative

From the Book Description:

"In a powerful and deeply personal memoir in the tradition of Arthur Koestler’s The God That Failed, David Brock, the original right-wing scandal reporter, chronicles his rise to the pinnacle of the conservative movement and his painful break with it.

"David Brock pilloried Anita Hill in a bestseller. His reporting in The American Spectator as part of the infamous 'Arkansas Project' triggered the course of events that led to the historic impeachment trial of President Clinton. Brock was at the center of the right-wing dirty tricks operation of the Gingrich era–and a true believer–until he could no longer deny that the political force he was advancing was built on little more than lies, hate, and hypocrisy.

"In Blinded By the Right, Brock, who came out of the closet at the height of his conservative renown, tells his riveting story from the beginning, giving us the first insider's view of what Hillary Rodham Clinton called 'the vast right-wing conspiracy.' Whether dealing with the right-wing press, the richly endowed think tanks, Republican political operatives, or the Paula Jones case, Brock names names from Clarence Thomas on down, uncovers hidden links, and demonstrates how the Republican Right's zeal for power created the poisonous political climate that culminated in George W. Bush's election."

Why this is progressive/liberal: David Brock's Media Matters for America is one of the most important media watchdogs today. Brock focuses on the distortions and outright lies of the right wing chattering class and counters with facts and evidence to demonstrate the falsehoods.

Buy the Kindle version: Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative

201: Big Lies by Joe Conason

Big Lies : The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth

From the Book Description:

In Big Lies, Joe Conason rips through the ten most damaging lies perpetrated by the right wing propaganda machine. This scathing, fact-filled analysis debunks it all:

- The myth that Republicans are fiscal geniuses and champions of free enterprise.
- The right's self-proclaimed monopoly on "family values."
- The conservative smearing of liberals as unpatriotic and anti-American.
- And of course, the "compassionate conservatism" of George W. Bush. (It depends on the meaning of "compassionate.")

Big Lies confronts right-wing slander and bias with a long-awaited, badly-needed counterpunch to the deceptions that have plagued American politics for a generation.

Why this is progressive/liberal: Conason does a tremendous job of fact-checking the right-wing punditocracy. However, ultimately this is a work of its time. It's interesting to see the liberal counter-arguments to the conservative talking points of the day, but it doesn't do much in the way of substantive argument.

203: What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman

What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman

From the Book Description:

The question of whose interests the media protects—and how—has achieved holy-grail-like significance. Is media bias keeping us from getting the whole story? If so, who is at fault? Is it the liberals who are purported to be running the newsrooms, television and radio stations of this country, duping an unsuspecting public into mistaking their party line for news? Or is it the conservatives who have identified media bias as a reliably inflammatory rallying cry around which to consolidate their political base as they cynically "work the refs?" The media has become so pervasive in our lives that regardless of exactly where on the ideological fence you sit, the question of media bias has become all but unavoidable. Most of the criticism (and anger) has so far emanated from the political Right, which has offered us the rather unconvincing argument that a systematic Left bias is destroying the quality of news and debate in our country today. Journalist and historian Eric Alterman begs to differ.

What Liberal Media? confronts the question of liberal bias and, in so doing, provides a sharp and utterly convincing assessment of the realities of political bias in the news. In distinct contrast to the conclusions reached by Ann Coulter, Bernard Goldberg, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly, Alterman finds the media to be, on the whole, far more conservative than liberal, though it is possible to find evidence for both views. The fact that conservatives howl so much louder and more effectively than liberals is one significant reason that big media is always on its guard for "liberal" bias but gives conservative bias a free pass. After reading What Liberal Media? you will understand that the real news story of recent years is not whether this newspaper, or that news anchor, is biased but rather to what extent the entire news industry is organized to communicate conservative views and push our politics to the right—regardless of how "liberal" any given reporter may be.

Why this is progressive/liberal: Eric Alterman does a thorough job of skewering the myth of the liberal media. Commercial media exists to make a profit, which means that it often does not criticize legislation that jeopardizes that profit. The profit motive also means that it's more important to make viewers stay tuned through commercials than it is to provide in-depth, high quality information that may educate citizens. It doesn't matter if TV news personalities vote for Democrats or not.

Buy the Kindle version: What Liberal Media?