Slanting the Story: The Forces That Shape the News

A powerful expos of the right-wing's efforts to shape the news. In recent years, right-wing foundations and think tanks with deep pockets and aggressive agendas have reshaped the national debate on the fundamental issues that affect all of us. In this provocative and well-researched book, investigative journalist Trudy Lieberman details how they have made the media unwitting partners in their mission. Lieberman traces the rise of powerful organizations such as the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the Manhattan Institute into savvy idea peddlers with millions to spend on marketing. Through case studies of four key policy debates--tax reform, health care, social security, and school vouchers--Slanting the Story demonstrates how conservative organizations have discredited their opponents, influenced the media, and engineered sweeping changes in public opinion and public policy. Finally, Lieberman warns that the growing power and influence of right-wing foundations and think tanks have profound implications for the future of American democracy, and suggests what we all can do in response.

There is indeed a vast right-wing conspiracy out there, writes Trudy Lieberman in Slanting the Story: "How the right wing has come to dominate public policy debates is one of the most significant political stories of the last two decades. The right-wing success stems largely from a variety of aggressive strategies used by well-financed think tanks and policy institutes to influence the media's coverage of political and economic issues." She has a point: conservative organizations that barely existed a generation ago now play a major role in shaping American political life, including the media's coverage of it. Her opinion of what this all means, however, is rather slanted itself: the result, she asserts, is "misleading and one-sided reporting that has given the electorate a distorted view of many important issues." Conservatives who can't find jobs in universities or have ever seen the surveys showing that the vast majority of reporters vote Democratic will laugh out loud when they read Lieberman's red-alert prose: "Conservative organizations are designing the agenda ... debate has become one-sided. The implications for the future of American democracy are profound."

Lieberman does make several intriguing observations, such as how conservative groups have modeled themselves after the consumer and environmentalist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. They've "beaten Ralph Nader at his own game," she writes. She also offers a few interesting case studies on how conservative groups have fought, with some success, against the growth of government. Lieberman clearly wishes they had failed. She urges journalists to engage in more objective, balanced reporting, but she doesn't practice what she preaches: this book is a hit job. It will appeal to left-wing partisans, and few others. --John J. Miller