Caveat lector

CONTEMPT (PART 1)! Bernie Goldberg made fools of his readers in Bias. In his new book, he’s at it again:

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2003

SEND IN THE CLOWN: The sad thing is, some of the topics Bernie Goldberg explores may well deserve exploration. How does the mainstream press treat issues of race? What goes on at Columbia School of Journalism? The mainstream press is often inept and inane, and its “biases” and errors deserve examination. The sad thing? We could gain from a real attempt to explore the issues Goldberg raises.

But Bernie Goldberg is up to old tricks in his clowning new pseudo-book, Arrogance. Two years ago, Goldberg clowned his way to the best-seller list with the ludicrous work he offered in Bias. And success hasn’t changed Bernie Goldberg! Consider his rage at the press corps’ great bias in favor of Hillary Clinton.

Who is the corps’ biggest Hillary suck-up? In Arrogance, Goldberg devotes a chapter to the topic, and he makes an odd choice: Margaret Carlson. Here is the passage where he makes his award. By the way, note the rancid tone Goldberg brings to his book—a book in which he weeps and moans about the lack of polite discourse by liberals:

GOLDBERG (page 148): Still, Nina Burleigh, Carole Simpson and even my ex-colleague Leslie Stahl all take a backseat when it comes to painting Hillary’s toenails. They are all runners-up in the “How May I Serve You, My Queen?” Sweepstakes. Because none of them—not even Newsweek contributing editor Eleanor “Rodham” Clift—can rival Margaret Carlson, who does commentary for TIME magazine (and is a regular on CNN’s Capital Gang) for sheer devotion to Ms. Hillary. If they gave out Nobel Prizes for Hillary-gushing, Margaret Carlson would be on her way to Stockholm.

At any rate, Goldberg says that Margaret Carlson is the Mother of All Hillary-Gushers. Here at THE HOWLER, we found this odd, because we had recently noted Carlson’s exuberant bashing of Clinton. Carlson’s autobiography, Anyone Can Grow Up, appeared in your bookstores just last spring. In it, Carlson trashes the Clintons up and down, and yes, that includes her Queen Hillary. In her book, Carlson makes it sound as if Hillary’s friend, Vincent Foster, blamed the Clintons in his suicide note. And she offers mocking, foolish accounts of Hillary Clinton’s conduct and character (links below). Soon after we reviewed Carlson’s book, we also noted the mocking comments aimed at the Clintons when Carlson appeared on Charlie Rose (link below). If you want to retain an ounce of respect for Rose, we suggest you avoid our report.

Yep! When Margaret Carlson wrote her life story, she filled it with mocking attacks on Hillary. But Goldberg tells readers that Carlson would win the “Nobel Prize for Hillary-gushing!” How did Goldberg reach such a judgment? Unsurprisingly, when we looked at his “evidence,” we found the same sort of insolent clowning that made his previous book such a sick joke.

On what basis does Goldberg award his prize? He clips three quotes from Carlson’s writing—quotes designed to show what a Hill Shill she is. But alas! Although Bernie is much too slick to tell you, two of the quotes come from profiles in early 1993—profiles written at a time when controversies about Hillary Clinton had barely begun. Even there, Goldberg has to fake his second quote, eliminating material—without an ellipsis—that wasn’t sufficiently positive. But how fake and phony is Bernie Goldberg? Here is the third quote he cites to show what a shill Carlson is:

GOLDBERG (page 148): And on the new Clinton home in Washington, Margaret Carlson offers this: “Secluded and quietly elegant, it has a spectacular garden in the back, with a poll tucked in among hundred-year-old trees…Hillary wanted an instant Washington salon, as grand as her health care plan, with as many rooms as her ambition.” [Goldberg’s ellipsis]

CARLSON: Although the Clintons can’t take the butlers with them, they may well be taking the things that caused them so much trouble. Each Clinton has a character flaw that gets in the other’s way. His is a sloppy self-indulgence. Hers is a haughty grandiosity—the tendency to think that because she is devoted to doing good, she is also entitled to do well. Biographer David Maraniss reports how she complained about not having a pool at the Governor’s house in Little Rock. There wasn’t a lot of surprise in Arkansas over the disclosure of her shady cattle-futures investment or their Whitewater deal.

It’s hard to find polite English words to describe Goldberg’s utter contempt for his readers—or to describe his contempt for American democracy, which he’s determined to shit on again. All this week, we’ll showcase his clowning. But the question must be asked: This time around, will Goldberg’s reviewers tell their readers just how badly they’re being misled? Will TV pundits—Chris Matthews, for example—dare to tell their trusting viewers that Bernie Goldberg is at it again?

VISIT OUR INCOMPARABLE ARCHIVES: Goldberg’s clowning in Bias really did take the cake. Enter his name in our whirring search engines, and watch him play his readers for fools—for marks, for pure rubes, for prime suckers.

Meanwhile, Carlson trashed Hill in her book, and on Rose. For more of her “sheer devotion to Ms. Hillary,” see THE DAILY HOWLER, 6/11/03, 6/12/03, and 6/23/03. And remember: According to Goldberg, this is the most egregious example of press bias favoring Hill!