ABC, CBS and NBC have blacked out Bernard Goldberg. On the February 17 CNN Reliable Sources, Bernard Goldberg informed host Howard Kurtz that though he’s been interviewed on many overseas shows and on “about 25 programs on cable,” he’s been shut out by ABC, CBS and NBC. The author of Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, also reported that “many people” at the three broadcast networks “agree with what I've said,” but “none of them either are stupid enough or courageous enough…to come forward and say anything.”
Kurtz asked Goldberg how his book has been received. Goldberg replied:
It's been overwhelmingly heartwarming. But really, the more important point is that it's been overwhelmingly civil. Many people, as you know, like the book, some don't. But both sides, even the people who don't like it, have been civil, except for a sliver of people who you work with at The Washington Post, Howie. But beyond that, what I find fascinating is that this book has been written about, or I've actually been in — been interviewed in places like England, Australia, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, China, Israel, Russia. That's just a short list. I didn't have time to do the Italian “Nightline,” or Sweden or Mexico….I've been on over 350 radio stations in the United States, and about 25 programs on cable TV.
But the only three places, Howie — and this is fine with me, because I could use what little free time I have — but the only three places I haven't been at any time of the day or night — and I'm including 2 in the morning or 4 in the morning, anytime — are ABC, NBC, and CBS, which is either hilarious or pathetic.
Kurtz wondered: “I would like to know why, since you are the number one book, the author of the number one book, why you believe, for example, ABC and NBC — let's concede you're probably not the most popular guy at CBS — isn't interested in having you on. Are they afraid of having you on? Are they afraid of the subject?”
Goldberg suggested: “I don't know if they're afraid of the subject, but they probably think, If we don't talk about this, the issue's going to go away. Well, they're dead wrong about that, just as they were dead wrong about thinking that nobody out there except some, you know, people with no teeth and who married their sisters or cousins would be interested in this book.
“So the issue isn't going to go away because ABC, NBC, and CBS aren't interested. It isn't going to go away because the Italian Nightline is interested, but the American Nightline isn't interested. There's a good chance that over the next five years, one of the three network evening newscasts will go away before this issue goes away.”
Goldberg soon added: “The problem is, the problem is this, many people at the networks — and I know this for a fact — at CBS, NBC, and ABC — agree with what I've said. I know this for an absolute fact. I've been told this by people at all three networks. But none of them either are stupid enough or courageous enough, or however you want to look at it, to come forward and say anything. Okay, that's an intellectual copout on their part, as far as I'm concerned. But none of them are brave enough to come up and say, Wait a second, we don't have to like this book, but is he really a no talent hack? Nobody will criticize anybody else in the media.”
Goldberg was referring to an attack piece by Washington Post TV reviewer Tom Shales. As recounted in the January 8 CyberAlert, in a vicious screed against Goldberg, Shales described the former CBS News correspondent at a “full-time addlepated windbag.” Shales complained about how Goldberg has hauled “out the old canard about the media being ‘liberal’ and the news being slanted leftward,” calling it “the first refuge of a no-talent hack.”
For more on this from the Media Research Center, click here.
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
