Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush

by Eric Boehlert

Lapdogs is the first book to demonstrate that, for the entire George W. Bush presidency, the news media have utterly failed in their duty as watchdog for the public. In blistering prose, Eric Boehlert... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743289315
• ISBN13: 9780743289313
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 333 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

End of innocence -- again.

This book is a harrowing read. Boehlert piles up incident after incident of media bias, laziness, intimidation and outright cowardice. I grew up a news junkie and at one time thought of the press, later the media, in heroic terms. I knew who Ed Murrow was and came of age while Woodward and Berstein were busting open Watergate. Even the popular media promoted this image. How many times did a dramatic point in a film, book or television show turn on informing the press about some crime or plot to insure justice would be done? Laughable now. Think how much so many of us believed that the press, the media, played a crucial role in ourdemocracy. I believed they were the best chance for finding some kind of truth out in the world. From the revelations about the Holocaust to Geraldo's work in the mental institution, we relied on the media to give us a glimpse of what was really going on. The days right after Katrina hit gave me a glimpse of the media I used to count on. Mixed in among the hacks, the sensationalists, the celebrity hounds there wereplain professional reporters doing their jobs, out for the truth. There are still some around, but they don't get the play that the stars of the mainstream press do. It has always been a struggle to get certain stories out that threaten the interests of the powerful, but in the past, the most important ones seemed to get on page one. Balance wasn't about two polarized talking heads spewing spin at the top of their voices or wall to wall coverage of some unbalanced author spewing venom to drum up publicity for a new book. Balance was about facts. It was about overcoming lies with facts no matter how painful and frightening. America used to want to prove our way of life was better than all other systems out there. Democracy, with all its warts and weaknesses, was morally superior to Communism, to the dictators and oppressive governments. I still believe it gives the individual the best chance for justice and a decent life, but morally superior? We lost the edge on that one I'm afraid. How are we different now? When we blur the lines of decent behavior, torture, murder, what is a lie or not, when lies seem not to matter unless they are about something meaningless and sensationsal (i.e. sex)-- how are we different? The loudest voice and the biggest stick can't be our only justification. Might can't be our measure for what is right if we are still to be that "America the Beautiful" vision so many have fought and died for.

Book of Revelations

This book is nothing short of explosive. It debunks the myths that our press corps and main stream media are professional, aggressive or "liberal leaning" as many would like us to believe. If anything, this press has rolled over for the Bush administration, and in effect, when asked to jump for the president, they collectively asked: "How high?" It is impossible to ignore the voluminous documentation that the author amasses with nexus searches, transcripts, video tapes, interviews, reports, etc. that make his case over and over again. Boehlert shows repeatedly how our main stream media (MSM) are scared to death of a conservative backlash to any story they may feel is biased. They are afraid of being denied future stories if they report the truth. And they are afraid of having their careers brought to an end of they report it. In short, the press has gone along to get along, become lazy, and hit the snooze button of lethargy and apathy toward any lies that came from the White House, or other neocon sources. Boehlert meticulously provides one example after another how the press, even such giants as the NY Times and the Washington Post, have danced to the White House tune. Swift Boat Veteran coverage? Nightly for weeks on end. Texans for Truth, (the anti-Swifty, anti-Bush group?) Eight reports only across all networks, newspapers, and news magazines. Reports of Kerry's war record? In the hundreds. Reports of Bush's national guard absences, etc.? Almost none. Pictures of dead Americans from Iraq or Afghanistan? None. Pictures of dead Americans from Somalia (when Clinton is president?) Continuous. Investigation of auto mechanic/male prostitute getting White House Press pass? None. Investigation of Downing Street Memo that claimed the US planned to go to war all along while claiming to pursue peaceful solutions? None. Investigation of false claims of WMD's in Iraq? None. The consequences to the White House of falsely reporting about PFC. Jessica Lynch and the death of Cardinal football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman? None. The topper has to be the NY Times sitting on the discovery of the government spying on our citizens in violation of the FISA law, and holding the story until after the elections! In fact, the only time that the press has mobilized since the Bush presidency was to investigate the phony memo handed to Dan Rather about President Bush's national guard record. This they completed in a matter of hours. How long did it take this same press to debunk the Swift Boat lies, story changes, contradictions and inconsistencies? Months. That debunk too came AFTER the presidential election. Is there a discrepancy here? In page after page this author dramatizes what some of us have suspected for some time. Our vaunted press has deluded themselves into believing they are doing a professional and unbiased job. They show disdain for public criticism, the same public they are pledged to serve. They have replaced truth with "balanced reporting"

Almost too painful-- but necessary

This is a painful read. There are so many instances explored here of the media refusing to do their job. And I think the last six years, it's never been more important to have a free and independent press. They failed. It would be a different world, a better world if they'd just done their jobs. Boehlert gracefully catalogs the lapses and tries to analyze why this happened, why even now pundits, columnists, editors, and journalists cut Bush and his incompetent crew more and more slack. He contrasts this with the often brutal treatment Clinton, Gore, and especially Kerry received from these very same media people. It makes no sense. It still makes no sense. But as a witness to an atrocity, Boehlert does a great job. The media's response to such criticism will no doubt be more of the usual defensiveness. But every reporter and editor in Washington needs to read this with an open mind. It's hard to admit, I know, how badly you were led astray-- but admitting it is the first step to correcting it. And anyone who reads this book -- even the pundits who have made a living the last decade from looking -away- from truth-- has to come away with an unsettled sense of a real disease in the press.

If you ask questions, you're a liberal moonbat

As I write this, Porter Goss has just resigned a top government post and not one single major daily newspaper has tried to find out why. Where do I get info about it? From Bill Maher, the Daily Show, and Salon.com. It would be nice to think that the horrendous abandonment of its post by the mainstream media is over, but it is clearly still in full swing. This excellent book covers the erosion of the Fourth Estate, and the First Amendment, in endless detail. Admittedly, there are a few points where Boehlert seems too anxious to draw conclusions or make his point (citing an investigation of Hillary Clinton in 2005 as a "media frenzy," when I can't even remember it)but he has so many powerful anecdotes to choose from his point pretty much makes itself. This is solid journalism, well researched and written, and details a shameful period in the history of our nation's media which unfortunately has not come to an end.

Explodes a 35 year myth

Spiro Agnew coined the liberal bias media back in the Nixion Administration. It was somewhat revived during the Reagan years though, as David Gergen admits, they knew the media was soft peddling with them. During the Clinton years the media was ruthless and as Joe Scarborough, republican, admits, the media was overly nasty to Al Gore. In Molly Ivins book, Shrub, she points out how the media never checked Bush's record as Govenor and faithfully wrote down what he claimed. This has been a well documented history. After the twin blows of Katrina and Scotter Libby, with the public asking more vehemently, where is the press??? The media somewhat looked at thier behavior over the Bush Administration and admitted they gave him a pass. But, the behavior hasn't changed. Especially when you concider that even moderate republicans have been shut down in favor of the fringe of the right wing. This important book exposes the myth, that it is a myth and that the media has been lapdogs. Well written and researched. using Media Matters, which has audio, transcripts and can back every allegation of the media, as a resource helps back up the charges in this wonderful book. With Helen Thomas coming out next month with a book on the same subject, I think it's going to be time for the media to examine thier supposed roles as watchdogs for the public good.