I liked Bernie's book "Bias" a lot--debate it if you like, but I think he made some good points, played fair, and generally restricted himself to commenting on the state of TV news. "Arrogance" was, well, a little more arrogant, with Bernie basically doing a scattershot look around everything that displeased him.

This book. "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America" is entertaining in a sort of crude way. There's absolutely no reason for such a book and even Goldberg doesn't pretend there is. The idea that all of these people are "screwing up America" is kind of vague, seeing as many of them hold very little power in America, a point Jon Stewart aptly pointed out. Some of Goldberg's picks are perceptive, others petty, several asinine. It's something of a cathartic rant, mainly played for humor, although as always, there are serious points. I post it here to debate the wisdom/appropriateness of some of his picks. I present the list with some explanations for some of the more obscure folks.

100. Rick and Kathy Hilton
99. Matthew Lesko, the "free money" guy in the Riddler suit
98. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D, Texas)--requested that hurricane names be more representative of black people
97. Todd Goldman, entrepeneur who sells "boy-bashing" T-shirts
96. Eve Ensler, writer of "The Vagina Monologues"
95. Courtney Love
94. Former State Senator Guy Velella (R, NY)--busted for taking bribes and pleaded for his freedom from jail to his influential pals
93. Richard Timmons--triple murderer who sued NYC in a higly dubious lawsuit for being "beaten" by the police
92. Kerri Dunn--college professor that apparently faked a vandalization and theft of her car as a faux "hate crime"
91. Barbra Streisand
90. Michael Jackson
89. Jane Smiley--author and liberal
88. Aaron McGruder--creator of the comic strip "The Boondocks"
87. Sheldon Hackney--president of the University of Pennsylvania, called spineless for caving in to campus militants, including filing charges of racial harassment against a white student for calling a black student a "water buffalo" despite the fact no evidence could be found that "water buffalo" was a racial slur
86. Chris Ofili--artist that created "Sensations," the picture of the Virgin Mary with elephant dung on it
85. "The Dumb Celebrity"--blanket term
84. "The Vicious Celebrity"
83. "The Dumb and Vicious Celebrity"
82. Laurie David--Larry David's wife and environmental activist
81. Tim Robbins
80. Kitty Kelley
79. Harry Belafonte
78. Norman Mailer
77. Linda Hirshman--feminist that criticized stay-at-home moms for being "ignorant"
76. Barbara Foley--professor at Rutgers who declared the ultimate cause of 9/11 was "the fascism of u.s. foreign policy"
75. Eric Foner--professor at Columbia who mused if the 9/11 disaster or "the apocalyptic rhetoric" from the White House was more frightening
74. Katha Pollitt--author for "The Nation," who refused to let her daughter hang an American flag out of their window because she felt the flag stood for "jingoism"
73. Barbara Kingsolver--novelist who, after 9/11, declared that the American flag "stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry...[etc.]"
72. Ward Churchill
71. Phil Donahue
70. Jimmy Swaggart
69. Matt Kunitz, executive producer of "Fear Factor"
68. Katherine Hanson--radical feminist who has claimed that 4 million women die every year from being beaten
67. Randall Robinson--leader of the slave reparation cause
66. David Duke
65. Oliver Stone
64. James Wolcott--author for "Vanity Fair," who joked that America deserved to die if it re-elected Bush in 2004
63. Amy Richards--feminist who wrote an essay for the New York Times about having a selective reduction (abortion of two fetuses to make triplets a single child) because triplets would make her "give up" her life
62. Howard Stern
61. Michael Savage--ultra-conservative radio host
60. Ludacris
59. Shirley Franklin--mayor of Atlanta who honored Ludacris in 2004
58. Eminem
57. Ted Field--founder of Interscope, a pioneer of gangsta rap
56. Diane Sawyer
55. David Westin, president of ABC News
54. Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News
53. Anna Nicole Smith
52. Markos Moulitsas--political blogger who said "Screw them" in response to the death of American civilian contractors in Iraq
51. Ann Pelo--author and educator whose book describes how she made preschoolers draw pictures urging the Blue Angels not to kill people or blow up their city
50. State Senator John Vasconcellos (CA)--promoter of the "self-esteem" movement
49. Ingrid Newkirk--president of PETA
48. Senator Robert Byrd
47. Representative Maxine Waters
46. Barbara Walters
45. Kenneth Lay
44. Dennis Kozlowski--the former CEO of Tyco
43. Paul Eibeler--president of the company that releases Grand Theft Auto
42. Gloria Steinem
41. Susan Beresford--president of the Ford Foundation
40. Scott Harshbarger--DA in Massachusetts that wrongly prosecuted a couple for sexual abuse of children and refused to admit he had made a mistake despite a lack of evidence
39. Peter Singer--animal rights activist that has said killing disabled infants should be legalized
38. Congressman Jim McDermott
37. Al Franken
36. Nancy Hopkins--professor that walked out of a conference in protest to Larry Summers' comments about gender differences
35. Jeff Danziger--political cartoonist
34. Bill Moyers
33. Bob Shrum--Democratic consultant
32. Jerry Springer
31. Maury Povich
30. Latrell Sprewell
29. John Green--Pistons fan that threw his beer at Ron Artest and said it was discrimination if his tickets were revoked
28. Julian Bond
27. Paul Begala
26. Dr. Martin Haskell--inventor of partial-birth abortion
25. James Kopp--antiabortion extremist that murdered a doctor in his own home
24. Lee Bollinger--president of University of Michigan
23. "Unknown American Terrorist"--referring to the ELFS, Earth Liberation Front
22. Michael Newdow--the Pledge of Allegiance guy
21. Judge Roy Moore--the Ten Commandments guy
20. Howard Dean
19. George Soros
18. Al Gore
17. Al Sharpton
16. John Edwards (for his legal career, not for his politics)
15. Ted Rall--political cartoonist
14. Mary Mapes, producer at CBS News
13. Andrew Heyward, president of CBS News
12. Dan Rather
11. Noam Chomsky
10. Ralph Neas, head of the People for the American Way
9. Jonathan Kozol--educator that has urged for left-wing indoctrination in schools
8. Paul Krugman
7. Margaret Marshall, chief justice of MA Supreme Court
6. Jimmy Carter
5. Anthony Romero--national director of ACLU
4. Jesse Jackson
3. Ted Kennedy
2. Arthur Sulzberger--publisher of New York Times
1. Michael Moore

There you go. All descriptions are taken from Goldberg himself and do not necessarily represent my own views of what is "screwing up America."

Re #47 Maxine Waters (47??? doo-wee-ooh!).

After the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, she had the chutzpah to stand up and ask why all the money was going to the SF Valley (suburbs) instead of the inner city.

Gee, Maxine, maybe because that's where all the damage was?

If Al Franken's story in Lies about Goldberg's taking a quote regarding communism out of context is correct, then I'd say that he was anything but "fair" in that book.

I have no way of knowing of Franken's story is correct--Goldberg indirectly seems to deny it in "100 People..."

I'll say he is mostly fair: I think his general points are valid--news media has become largely sensationalistic, driven by non news topics, victims of a herd mentality, and heavily influenced by personal agendas. Nothing new there, though.

Bernard Goldberg's book is a piece of garbage. It's little more than the type of hateful anti-liberal garbage Sean Hannity spews out every night on his FOX show. His book is already dated; the most recent polls show that the American people would prefer the Democrats to assume control of both Houses. The Republican party is (and is now seen by the majority of the public) as incompetent and corrupt. The only ones who think America is being ruined by liberals are the pathetic 32% in polls who still approve of Bush. That mean-spirited base is going to be lured to the voting booth again by that old Republican anti-gay marriage issue (Republican strategists have announced their plans to use this issue again). Tom Delay (on Sunday) said the gay marriage issue was one of the most important issues for [bigoted right-wing] voters.

Bernie's list is not only laughable, it's disgusting. I just finished reading Carter's book "Our Endangered Values". Carter comes off as an incredibly decent and moral man. He's worked with pharmacuitical companies to provide medication to millions of Africans to prevent river blindness. For anyone to say Carter is immoral reveals that they are probably racist. That would explain why Bernie was incredible rude to an Asian American woman on his televised C-Span speech last year.

As with Cheney, Bernie is also a chicken-hawk who insults veterans. In that same speech, he was very disrespectful to critics who were veterans.

Bernie should have more accurately titled his book "Bernies's Descent Into Neo-Con Sleazebagginess".

I'll say he is mostly fair: I think his general points are valid--news media has become largely sensationalistic, driven by non news topics, victims of a herd mentality, and heavily influenced by personal agendas. Nothing new there, though.

He's right about News Media being sensationalistic , but he's said that news media can either be biased toward tabloid or liberal, never conservative when in the last decade the news media (and not just Fox) has become much more conservative.

I see. So anyone who disagrees with you is a racist.

That's a good point, Brian. I don't know if I fully agree with you, but yeah, Goldberg acts as if media is only biased one way.

My major issue with Goldberg's book is that he avoids picking a lot of people who really ARE screwing up America. Courtney Love? Who really takes Courtney Love seriously? What about Jack Abramoff? Tom DeLay?

MikeC: I have no way of knowing of Franken's story is correct--Goldberg indirectly seems to deny it in "100 People..."
Luigi Novi: How so? Franken provided the full context of the quote that Goldberg repeated out of context.

P.R.: His book is already dated; the most recent polls show that the American people would prefer the Democrats to assume control of both Houses.
Luigi Novi: What does that have to do with being "dated"?

P.R.: For anyone to say Carter is immoral reveals that they are probably racist. That would explain why Bernie was incredible rude to an Asian American woman on his televised C-Span speech last year.
Luigi Novi: Who has said that Carter is immoral? And does this have to do with racism? And who was this Asian woman? What does Goldberg being rude to someone have to do with that someone's race? Why do you always argue, without providing any evidence, that any criticism or any behavior by a Republican regarding a member of a particular group issue necessarily stems from bigotry? Aren't these repeated comments by you about Republicans bigoted themselves? And why do you not respond when people point these things out to you, as when it was pointed out to you that one of the creators of South Park was Jewish, in light of your accusation of anti-Semitism on their part?

Do you think you could at least provide some evidence to back up an accusation like this?

I'd have to look at Lies again, Luigi, and compare it to Bias. I meant "I have no way of knowing right now and I don't want to say anything."

Goldberg slams Carter, but I don't see how this has anything to do with being racist.

Actually he missed two major players that should be on the list. Dubya and Pat "Whacko" Robertson.
Those two are major players scrwing up the country..

Luigi seems to think that no one is capable of turning on their own tribe. It happens daily. Watch everyday as O'Reilly and Hannity smear every Kennedy. A brilliant female professor wrote an excellent column a few monthes ago showing that Steven Spielberg has displayed negative attitudes towards Jewish women. The ethnicity of someone has little to with anything. Bigoted statements must be denouced regardless of who makes them. It just happens that Republicans make 99% of bigoted statements.

I must update my initial post. Gallup's latest poll shows that Bush's approval rating is down to 31%. Dub' is as popular as Nixon after Watergate!!!

Steven Spielberg has displayed negative attitudes towards Jewish women

Oh, please. If he did, his mother would kill him. I've met the lady, she wouldn't stand for it.

P.R.: Luigi seems to think that no one is capable of turning on their own tribe.
Luigi Novi: No, I think that if you want to establish an idea, particularly a serious or accustory one, then you should provide evidence for it, instead of just assuming bigotry.

P.R.: It happens daily. Watch everyday as O'Reilly and Hannity smear every Kennedy.
Luigi Novi: And since the Kennedys are Democrats, how exactly are O'Reilly or Hannity in the same "tribe", given that they're Republicans (or in the case of O'Reilly, independents who vote Republican)?

P.R.: A brilliant female professor wrote an excellent column a few monthes ago showing that Steven Spielberg has displayed negative attitudes towards Jewish women.
Luigi Novi: Okay. Can you provide specifics, like a link, a name, a book title, etc.?

P.R.: The ethnicity of someone has little to with anything. Bigoted statements must be denouced regardless of who makes them.It just happens that Republicans make 99% of bigoted statements.
Luigi Novi: Then why do you make them so often yourself? You, more than anyone else on this board, have attacked numerous groups of people with tastes, beliefs or practices different from yours. Why is this? Why do you claim that bigoted statments need to be denounced, and then in the very next sentence, make one yourself about Republicans?

You and I are in agreement that bigotry needs to be discredited. The point is that you have to establish that the given statement or position stems from bigotry in the first place, which you yourself have never done, thus exhibiting the very behavior you presume criticize. It's not enough, for example that someone was rude to a woman who happened to be Asian. It needs to be establishedthat her being Asian was the reason why he was rude to her, and not some other reason. It's fallacious to merely assume that it was bigotry. Is this idea not reasonable to you?

I think the point of the Kennedy thing was that all the individuals have Irish ethnicity.

Robertson would be a good choice, a better one than Swaggart. In fairness to Goldberg, he did not put any of the Clintons or Bushes.

Thanks, I didn't realize that that's what she meant.

Yeah Robertson is pretty much the poster child for the christian taliban's meddling in america.

And the absence of bush or clinton is partly due to the subjectivity of a list like this done by an author without public opinion polls or general public input. It reflects the personal opinion of the author and not the general consensu. Of course the general consensus varies depending on your own biases. I personnallly hate dubya and consider him the worst president in the history of presidents (And I'm not even limiting him to just beign compared with american presidents I'm including just about anyone who ever held the title president including the local gardening club) but some people declare him to be the next savior and a candidate for sainthood.

Oh well. Teh local library had this on the new shelf so I'll check it out and read it. Might be interesting. Besides one should read the book before they discuss it too much.

Luigi is up to his ad hominem attacks on me again. Back to implying that I'm a liar, suggesting I made up something about a female professor criticising Spielberg; the column appeared the week after his 'Munich' film came out. I'm not playing the game of quoting feminists to be attacked any more (the Andrea Dworkin board was an ugly enough experience). Again, you suggest that I'm a bigot that attacks groups. This is especially offensive since I am a member of several groups that fight bigotry and promote tolerance. I'm a member of the NAACP. You surely aren't. I will denounce groups which espouse bigoted views. The RNC's leader Ken Mehlman has admitted to the NAACP that the Republican party has practiced racism. The Republicans also shamelessly use homophobia to get out the Evangelical vote. Sorry, but I will continue to denounce the bigoted actions of Republicans...no matter how much people like you try to smear me.

Some people don't like women. It's not my duty to try to reason with irrational people. Right-wing males have a problem with intellectual women.

Rona: Luigi is up to his ad hominem attacks on me again. Back to implying that I'm a liar, suggesting I made up something about a female professor criticising Spielberg...
Luigi Novi: In the first place, I did not imply any such thing. I merely asked you if you could furnish us with details, because I, for one, would like to read it. If you're going to make such a serious accusation, then you should illustrate it with evidence. That is a reasonable part of discourse. It has nothing to do with accusing one of lying. Are you saying that you do not agree that it is not part of the empirical method and the exchange of ideas to ask someone making a certain claim to provide documentation of it? If so, then why does doing so imply an accusation of lying? And if not, then why not?

In the second place, even if I made such an accusation, that is not what an ad hominem argument is. An ad hominem argument is an argument in which one responds to an idea, claim or argument on the basis of an irrelevant fact about the person making it, such as a supposed bias on their part. I never brought up any bias or other fact about you; I simply asked you to provide documentation of your claim. If you do not know what an ad hominem is or how to employ that term properly, then you shouldn't use it. You can read more about ad hominem arguments here and here. I also find it a double standard for you attack public figures on the basis of imagined motives of bigotry on their part, which in itself is an ad hominem argument, and then claim that others do this.

Rona: the column appeared the week after his 'Munich' film came out.
Luigi Novi: Telling me when it came out does little good, as you did not provide the name of the professor, the publication, or a link. If you could do this, I assure you that I would be very interested in reading it.

Rona: I'm not playing the game of quoting feminists to be attacked any more (the Andrea Dworkin board was an ugly enough experience).
Luigi Novi: So in your rationale, quoting authors leads to attacks, so it is actually better to not back up your claims with documentation? How do you figure this?

Rona: Again, you suggest that I'm a bigot that attacks groups.
Luigi Novi: I do not suggest it. I point out that numerous comments you have made over the past year or so indicate it. Do you deny that you have made comments directed at numerous groups of people, including fans of horror movies, fans of Toby Keith, adult film actors, Republicans, men and husbands in general, and so forth? Would you like me to furnish you with examples of this?

Rona: This is especially offensive since I am a member of several groups that fight bigotry and promote tolerance. I'm a member of the NAACP. You surely aren't.
Luigi Novi: That you may be a member of such groups does not absolve you of responsibility for making numerous questionable comments on these boards, including your numerous lies about me. Furthermore, your statement about whether I'm in the NAACP is itself an ad hominem comment.

Rona: I will denounce groups which espouse bigoted views. The RNC's leader Ken Mehlman has admitted to the NAACP that the Republican party has practiced racism. The Republicans also shamelessly use homophobia to get out the Evangelical vote. Sorry, but I will continue to denounce the bigoted actions of Republicans...
Luigi Novi: Which is fine by me, since I agree that many of them do this. The problem is that you condemn the entire group, instead of just those members who actually do this, as if you're unable to comprehend the distinction.

Rona: ...no matter how much people like you try to smear me.
Luigi Novi: I don't have to smear you. Your own words and actions are questionable as they are that one merely has to call attention to them as they are.

And since we're on something of a theme today on this point, allow me to tell you what I told R earlier today:

The next time you put words in my mouth that I did not say, or attack me in an ad hominem manner will be your last on the PM boards. Do it again, and I will not only remove your posts, but I will ban you from PM altogether. If you cannot conduct yourself here with civility and honesty, then you are not welcome here.

Luigi seems to think that no one is capable of turning on their own tribe. It happens daily. Watch everyday as O'Reilly and Hannity smear every Kennedy.

So are you really going to argue that Hannity and O'Reilly attack kennedy because he is Irish and not because he's liberal and an easy target given some of his past actions?

Goldberg's newest book, "Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right of Me," is interesting in that it allows one to get a handle on Goldberg's political beliefs--he is clearly a Goldwater Republican and actually would probably vote Libertarian if that was a viable option.

The book itself would have benefited from a better editor--it's written in a series of short essays attacking either liberals for being crazy or conservatives for selling out. While I myself am fairly libertarian, the book is really nothing more than Goldberg outlining his political viewpoints, which, fine, he's entitled to them, but he presents them so stridently that he gets shrill. Thus, both conservatives and liberals are sure to be offended. A pro-life advocate would doubtless not be pleased to find Goldberg wondering why we should care about a "zygote." Many racial advocates will be bemused reading Goldberg's Ward Connerly-like statements about race relations and affirmative action (parts of which I agree with, but he completely ignores any aspect of institutional racism). Creationists are compared to Dark Ages kooks. And Goldberg's arguments in favor of torture and racial profiling (of Arabs) might not win him any points with the Arab-American Council.

I'm making the book out to be just a diatribe. It's not just that--it's funny and there's some actual good points (such a dissection of Ann Coulter and why she hurts the conservative movement). But it's just hard to take Goldberg seriously when he defends Bill O'Reilly as caring about opponent viewpoints. He would have been better off writing a honest book about his disillusion with both parties (as he does, rather well, in the first few chapters) than this sprawling saga.