THROUGH THE MEDIA LOOKING GLASS: Decoding Bias...

THROUGH THE MEDIA LOOKING GLASS: Decoding Bias and Blather in the News by Jeff Cohen and Norm Solomon (Common Courage Press: $11.95; 275 pp., illustrated, paperback original). The authors of the syndicated column “Media Beat” maintain, “Journalists are supposed to expose secrets, not keep them.” In these collected columns, they mock Patrick Buchanan, Diane Sawyer Robert Novak and Rush Limbaugh, who claim to speak for average Americans but refuse to discuss their enormous salaries. Cohen and Solomon challenge the supposed liberal bias of PBS, citing the influence of major corporate underwriters, and note that the so-called “liberal media” are controlled by large corporations and capitalists. The bold, muckraking tone of these columns offers a welcome respite from the decerebrated discourse that too often passes for contemporary journalism.