The problem with a book like this: the right people don't read it. It's a total challenge to the ultimate myth: the media slants to the left. Alterman's thesis boils down to two facts: 1) in an effort to avoid liberal bias charges, the media slants itself to the right, and 2) the conservative media slam-dunks the left with the sheer money, resources, and overall support they enjoy that alternative media will always be befeft of.

I wish I could memorize this book. Alterman lists how the media totally shafted the Clintons and Gore during his campaign (including, by the way, the "liberal" bastions of the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post), how pundits have infiltrated the filter so as to completely mix opinion/observation with news (witness Cokie Roberts' musings about Al Gore having something to hide without anything but a hunch), and the schmoes like Rupert Murdoch and Richard Scaife getting chummy with the GOP, funding barely-literate newspapers and newsmagazines. Of course, nobody needs to be told that Fox News is not "fair and balanced" except for Fox News fans, but I was surprised at the examples Alterman trotted out regarding the New York Times' and the Washington Posts's coverage of items like the War on Terrorism and 9/11, slamming questions about motive and how U.S. foreign policy might have influenced the terrorists' actions as un-American and not up for discussion. Naysayers, beware: he uses footnotes and fact checks.