Post Mortem

The Washington Post Book World continues to embarass itself, this time with a substance-free review of Eric Alterman's What Liberal Media? The reviewer, one Jay Rosen of the NYY J-School, begins with a perfunctory summary of Alterman's thesis and then... says nothing significant about it.

Instead, Rosen complains about the subject of the book. Alterman says that the conservative-dominated media is bad for democracy, Rosen claims; but would a liberal-dominated media be any better, Rosen asks? But that's not the book Alterman wrote. If you're interested in that subject, Rosen, you can write a book about it. In the meantime, trying addressing the merits of the book you've been hired to review.

Ultimately, Rosen falls back on the old, old dodge: the right claims the media is biased against it, and so does the left; therefore, they must both be wrong. Rosen's review is like the "civic journalism" of which he is a leading proponent -- it sounds high-minded but is actually hollow, and unwilling and unable to reach a conclusion even though the facts are plain to see.