100 People Who Are Screwing Up America

[MrsSpringsteen]

Has anyone read this book? Ive heard about it, and I get the impression he says it's mostly "left wing" people who are doing it..maybe I'm wrong. I was listening to Howard Stern the other day and he said he's on the list.

the subtitle is ("and Al Franken is # 37) I'm curious what the entire list is if anyone has it

Maybe we should make a FYM list of 100 people who are screwing up America

from Amazon..

Book Description

The number one New York Times bestselling author of Bias delivers another bombshell -- this time aimed at ...

100 People Who Are Screwing Up America

No preaching. No pontificating. Just some uncommon sense about the things that have made this country great -- and the culprits who are screwing it up.

Bernard Goldberg takes dead aim at the America Bashers (the cultural elites who look down their snobby noses at "ordinary" Americans) ... the Hollywood Blowhards (incredibly ditzy celebrities who think they're smart just because they're famous) ... the TV Schlockmeisters (including the one whose show has been compared to a churning mass of maggots devouring rotten meat) ... the Intellectual Thugs (bigwigs at some of our best colleges, whose views run the gamut from left wing to far left wing) ... and many more.

Goldberg names names, counting down the villains in his rogues' gallery from 100 all the way to 1 -- and, yes, you-know-who is number 37. Some supposedly "serious" journalists also made the list, including the journalist-diva who sold out her integrity and hosted one of the dumbest hours in the history of network television news. And there are those famous miscreants who have made America a nastier place than it ought to be -- a far more selfish, vulgar, and cynical place.

But Goldberg doesn't just round up the usual suspects we have come to know and detest. He also exposes some of the people who operate away from the limelight but still manage to pull a lot of strings and do all sorts of harm to our culture. Most of all, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America is about a country where as long as anything goes, as one of the good guys in the book puts it, sooner or later everything will go.

This is serious stuff for sure. But Goldberg will also make you laugh as he harpoons scoundrels like the congresswoman who thinks there aren't enough hurricanes named after black people, and the environmentalist to the stars who yells at total strangers driving SUVs -- even though she tools around the country in a gas-guzzling private jet.

With Bias, Bernard Goldberg took us behind the scenes and exposed the way Big Journalism distorts the news. Now he has written a book that goes even further. This time he casts his eye on American culture at large -- and the result is a book that is sure to become the voice of all those Americans who feel that no one is speaking for them on perhaps the most vital issue of all: the kind of country in which we want to live.

About the Author


Bernard Goldberg is the author of the number one New York Times bestseller Bias as well as the national bestseller Arrogance. He has won six Emmy Awards for his work as a senior correspondent on the CBS program 48 Hours. He now reports for HBO's acclaimed Real Sports, where he recently won his eighth Emmy, this one for Outstanding Sports Journalism. He lives in Miami.

 

[melon]

Same old crap, different story. Maybe we should put Bernard Goldberg on this list for falling prey to the usual divisive and petty fearmongering in America today. He's certainly not trying to add to the positive discourse; he's merely trying to sell books.

Melon

 

[VertigoGal]

I agree with Melon. Here's a pretty funny little interview segment from when Goldberg was on the Daily Show. Should give you an idea of what angle he's going for...

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/...ebrity_interviews/index.jhtml?playVideo=16573

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

he seems like the male version of Ann Coulter

Galley Girl: Questions for Bernard Goldberg


Our books correspondent talks with the pundit about politics, culture and Courtney Love
By ANDREA SACHS

Bernard Goldberg has been on a spirited crusade against the left for three books now —the number one New York Times bestseller Bias, the bestselling Arrogance, and his latest book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. Goldberg, an Emmy-winning journalist, is a former correspondent on the CBS program 48 Hours. Galley Girl spoke by phone to him in Miami.


GG: You used to be a liberal. What happened?

BG: What happened? Liberals happened. I want to make a distinction between your run-of-the-mill liberals and the cultural elite liberals, who really speak for liberalism in America today. Most liberals obviously are decent people. They go to work every day, they care about their families, maybe they give money to charity. Fine. I have no problem whatsoever with anybody in that group. But the people who are speaking for liberals in the world of politics, the chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean; or the cultural liberals, like Michael Moore; the Hollywood elites who confuse intelligence with celebrity—they think because they’re famous, they’re also smart. I listen to them and I say, I don’t want to be part of that group anymore. Even when I agree with them, which is more often than you would think, I no longer want to be seen as being part of that group. It isn’t because of their politics, which I think are misguided; it’s because they come off as snobby and elitest. I think they look down their nose at ordinary Americans.

GG: How did you compile your list?

BG: I really think that there are a lot of people out there, liberals as well as conservatives, Democrats as well as Republicans, who say that this country has just gotten too angry in recent years, too nasty and certainly too vulgar. There’s this tendency to believe that this stuff just happens in societies—societies just evolve; nobody’s to blame. I don’t believe that. I think people are to blame. These aren’t the 100 worst people in America; they’re 100 people who in my view are screwing things up. And some of the names are there for fun. I mean, Courtney Love...

GG: You called her a “ho”! That’s serious.

BG: I called her a “ho.”

GG: What’s a “ho” as opposed to a whore?

BG: There’s a world of difference. You know the stuff that she’s done. I figured one word for Courtney Love ought to take care of it.

GG: Somehow, I’m not amazed that Howard Stern is on your list.

BG: The reason he’s on the list because he’s supposed to be a shock jock. Here’s the bad news: he doesn’t shock anybody anymore. Thanks to Howard...this kind of sludge just washes over us. And that’s the danger. That’s the serious part of the book. I’m not the Church Lady. I don’t care what people say in private; I don’t care what they do in private. But we’re talking about the public arena.

GG: But when you say that we’ve come a long way from “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” causing a big ruckus, that a lot of us miss that America, aren’t you causing the problem, too, with your own ranting at people?

BG: Ranting is your word. I would say this: I don’t call anybody a Nazi. I don’t call anybody a fascist. I don’t drop the F bomb on anybody. But I can give you a list as long as your arm of my friends on the left who do that all the time.

GG: You inveigh against rap music, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton. Don’t you worry about being called a racist?

BG: I’m glad you’re bringing that up. I write about race in this book with a great deal of sadness. When I was in high school and college in the ‘60s, the civil rights movement was the most important movement and the most moral movement of my time, and of the 20th century, for that matter. Martin Luther King, in my opinion, was one of the five most important, decent Americans since our founding as a nation. What happens after Martin Luther King gets assassinated? We get Jesse Jackson, we get Al Sharpton. If the implication is that you can’t write about Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton without worrying about being called a racist, well, we’ve got a big problem in this country.

GG: What if somebody said to you, are you feigning outrage to sell books?

BG: The answer is no. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m incapable—and I mean, like physically incapable—of writing stuff I don’t believe. My fingers won’t hit the keys.

 

[BonosSaint]

We are all the enemy. Am I on the list?
No? If I'm not on his list, I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Irvine511]

tell me, what is the price of snake oil these days?

 

[melon]

I'm thinking that the Left has been too nice these days. For better or for worse, we do try and accomodate right wing points of view without feeling as if we're somehow inherently superior...

...but I do think that's our downfall. Not only should we believe that conservatives are evil and corrupt children, we should believe that our values are superior and that all inferior ideologies should be annihilated.

That is, after all, how conservatives approach their world.

Melon

 

[verte76]

I don't know if liberals are too nice these days. I don't have any confidence, which is indeed a problem. I don't think it's the same thing.

 

[nbcrusader]

Is there any validity to Goldberg's criticism?

 

[Irvine511]

Is there any validity to Goldberg's criticism?

i think the title of the book, and Bernie's track record, answers that question.

seems like he wants to sell more books, so he's off to the races with Coulter, Limbaugh, and Moore.

 

[deep]

Is there any validity to Goldberg's criticism?

fuck no

 

[nbcrusader]

Sounds like we are judging a book by its cover....

 

[beegee]

i took a look at it. it's one of those books that takes about an hour to read. the thing that struck me the most was how the author condemned certain hip hop stars for referring to women as "ho's and bitches" but yet uses a single word to illustrate how courtney love is "screwing up america."

and that word is "ho."

 

[deep]

Sounds like we are judging a book by its cover....

Actually

While driving I channel surf

and heard the author interviewed, at some length, on the Rush Limbaugh show
EIB

and Rush asked him if their were any conservatives on the list.

he said, "Yes, there are."

then listed, judge Moore and said, I am taking some heat for this one.

“He is a good man. But when you go through the courts and they say to relocate the monument and he does not do it. No matter if the concept may be righteous, you can not undermine the rule of law. “

Then he goes on to name; savich the nut case hate monger and apologizes for picking a right-wing radio host, but says his tactics do more harm than good.


So that is my qualified "fuck no"

and I have not seen the cover of the book.

 

[deep]

this may be the list

don't buy his trash


1. Michael Moore
2. Arthur Sulzberger
3. Ted Kennedy
4. Jesse Jackson
5. Anthony Romero
6. Jimmy Carter
7. Margaret Marshall
8. Paul Krugman
9. Jonathan Kozol
10. Ralph Neas
11. Noam Chomsky
12. Dan Rather
13. Andrew Heyward
14. Mary Mapes
15. Ted Rall
16. John Edwards
17. Al Sharpton
18. Al Gore
19. George Soros
20. Howard Dean
21. Judge Roy Moore
22. Michael Newdow
23. The Unknown American Terrorist
24. Lee Bollinger
25. James Kopp
26. Dr. Martin Haskell
27. Paul Begala
28. Julian Bond
29. John Green
30. Latrell Sprewell
31. Maury Povich
32. Jerry Springer
33. Bob Shrum
34. Bill Moyers
35. Jeff Danziger
36. Nancy Hopkins
37. Al Franken
38. Jim McDermott
39. Peter Singer
40. Scott Harshbarger
41. Susan Beresford
42. Gloria Steinem
43. Paul Eibeler
44. Dennis Kozlowski
45. Ken Lay
46. Barbara Walters
47. Maxine Waters
48. Robert Byrd
49. Ingrid Newkirk
50. John Vasconellos
51. Ann Pelo
52. Markos Moulitsas
53. Anna Nicole Smith
54. Neal Shapiro
55. David Westin
56. Diane Sawyer
57. Ted Field
58. Eminem
59. Shirley Franklin
60. Ludacris
61. Michael Savage
62. Howard Stern
63. Amy Richards
64. James Wolcott
65. Oliver Stone
66. David Duke
67. Randall Robinson
68. Katherine Hanson
69. Matt Kunitz
70. Jimmy Swaggart
71. Phil Donahue
72. Ward Churchill
73. Barbara Kingsolver
74. Katha Politt
75. Eric Foner
76. Barbara Foley
77. Linda Hirshman
78. Norman Mailer
79. Harry Belafonte
80. Kitty Kelley
81. Tim Robbins
82. Laurie David
83. The Dumb and Vicious Celebrity
84. The Vicious Celebrity
85. The Dumb Celebrity
86. Chris Ofili
87. Sheldon Hackney
88. Aaron McGruder
89. Jane Smiley
90. Michael Jackson
91. Barbara Streisand
92. Kerri Dunn
93. Richard Timmons
94. Guy Velella
95. Courtney Love
96. Eve Ensler
97. Todd Goldman
98. Sheila Jackson Lee
99. Matthew Lesko
100. Rick and Kathy Hilton

 

[Calluna]

Jimmy Carter???

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Yes, Jimmy Carter is pure evil

That list is funny, the only one that jumped out at me w/ a quick glance was Dennis Koslowski (or however you spell that) now that I agree with. White collar criminals like that are screwing up this country

Why isn't Martha Stewart on that list?

Eve Ensler? He must have a problem w/ The Vagina Monologues

 

[deep]

here is no. 9

Jonathan Kozol is an educator and author of nonfiction works which focus on the issues of race, poverty and education. His books include Death At An Early Age, Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace, Illiterate American, and Rachel and Her Children.

In 1964, Jonathan Kozol moved from Harvard Square into a poor black neighborhood of Boston and become a fourth grade teacher in the Boston public schools. He has devoted the subsequent three decades to issues of education and social justice in America.

Death At An Early Age, a description of his first year as a teacher, was published in 1967 and received the 1968 National Book Award in Science, Philosophy and Religion. Now regarded as a classic by educators, Death At An Early Age sold more than two million copies in the United States and abroad.

From the start, Kozol combined teaching with activism. Working with black and Hispanic parents, he helped set up a number of freedom schools in storefronts and church basements and later taught at South Boston Senior High School during the city's desegregation crisis.

In subsequent years, Kozol grew increasingly concerned about the large numbers of adults he met in very poor communities who could not read. In 1980, the Cleveland Public Library asked him to design a literacy plan for the nation's large cities. His plan became the model for a major effort sparked by the State Library of California. The book that followed, Illiterate American, became the center of a national campaign to spur federal and private action on adult literacy.

A few days before Christmas, 1985, Mr. Kozol spent an evening at a homeless shelter in New York. Night-long conversations with the mothers and children who befriended him led him to remain there for much of the winter. Out of that experience came Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America, a powerful portrait of the day-to-day life struggle of some of the poorest people in America -- living only one block from Fifth Avenue within our nation's richest city.

When Rachel and Her Children was published in 1988, Newsweek called it "bitterly eloquent." The Los Angeles Times called it "compelling, moving, eloquent... an extended tour of Hell." The New York Times said the book was "a searing indictment of society." The author, said the Chicago Sun-Times, is "today's most eloquent spokesman for America's disenfranchised."

Rachel and Her Children was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for 1989 and The Conscience in Media Award of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

 

[BVS]

Fucking drivel...I can think of at least 50 people that didn't make the list that are doing more harm than this list, some of which are liberals and some conservatives. One of which is the author of this book.

 

[pax]

I'd like to know how a woman (Eve Ensler) who has written a groundbreaking piece of theater and has perhaps done more than any other popular figure (save Tori Amos) to combat rape, domestic violence, and the sex trade of women worldwide is "screwing up America."

Oh, wait, because she dares to make people say "vagina" out loud and in public! Of course!

 

[BVS]

Oh, wait, because she dares to make people say "vagina" out loud and in public! Of course!

That can be devestating to a country...

 

[U2MaNaIcWeIdO]

to list

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

Oh, wait, because she dares to make people say "vagina" out loud and in public! Of course!

Well some men are uncomfortable with the word.

(I The Big Lebowski.)

 

[Irvine511]

Well some men are uncomfortable with the word.

(I The Big Lebowski.)

and a man will so casually refer to his cock, or his rod, or his Johnson...

don't be fatuous, Jeffrey.

 

[Lemonfix]

How does Courtney Love have more influence on our culture and it's supposed downfall than say, most politicians (or, hell, celebrities that people actually CARE about)?

And geez, when Barbra Streisand opens her mouth I think most people, liberal and conservative, tend to run in the opposite direction. Does she actually influence anyone to her way of thinking?

All of which are points that Jon Stewart more or less pointed out with greater success.

 

[VertigoGal]

How does Courtney Love have more influence on our culture and it's supposed downfall than say, most politicians (or, hell, celebrities that people actually CARE about)?

And geez, when Barbra Streisand opens her mouth I think most people, liberal and conservative, tend to run in the opposite direction. Does she actually influence anyone to her way of thinking?

exactly...as Jon said, "Barbara Streisand hasn't ruined a culture since Yentl!"

 

[nbcrusader]

How does Courtney Love have more influence on our culture and it's supposed downfall than say, most politicians (or, hell, celebrities that people actually CARE about)?

More people keep up on celebrity news than political news. I bet more people know Courtney Love over any member of the Supreme Court.

 

[anitram]

Courtney Love's washed up.

TomKat, however...

 

[VertigoGal]

More people keep up on celebrity news than political news. I bet more people know Courtney Love over any member of the Supreme Court.

If that's true, our culture does have a problem, and it's nothing to do with Courtney Love.

 

[hiphop]

without feeling as if we're somehow inherently superior...

...but I do think that's our downfall. Not only should we believe that conservatives are evil and corrupt children, we should believe that our values are superior and that all inferior ideologies should be annihilated.

With all due respect, it was always the liberals - and especially the American ones - who have touted their horn how much greater they are than everyone else because of their ideas of equality and freedom.

Well take a look what liberals have reached in the course of the last, say 215 years, since the French revolution. It´s not that fucking great. Your record is BAD. Get it? Arguably you haven´t prevented any war (we don´t need to speak about the current one), millions of Americans are still umemloyed and living on the street, there are geat social injustices in your oh-so-free liberalism.

So do me a favour and spare me the arrogant liberal tradition of mocking everything else. It was English liberals who did the East India Company, it was liberals who were all for robbing other countries´resources - the conservatives wanted to stay in their little nice home cage and rip the farmers (and later the workers) off like they always had, but the liberals made it to a "everyone on this big beautiful globe has the equal right to be betrayed".

If you believe your values are superior - one of the worst mistakes of many liberals, who are just interested in patting each others shoulders - for what, inquiring minds want to know - instead of changing the unjust system (but rather supporting it) take a closer look. They aren´t. If they were, the liberals didnt have time to wank off about how great they are every single day.