Bias

Title : Bias – A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News

Writer: Bernard Goldberg

Year : 2001

Language : English

It is a very nature of people to red many books which provide them with everything that they like or are interested in. So do I. I find that I’m fix to media and journalism until I decided to arrange my undergradute thesis on American Media. And, since my main focus right now is, of course, American Media, I’m dying and trying so hard to find and read many books and journals about American Media. This book, which I accidentally found in my department’s library, is definitely one of those many books I chose to read.

Bernard Goldberg was actually a news correspondent in CBS TV channel, one of the biggest TV channels in America. After years working for that big media corporation, he found that American media was not truly objective. They slanted news they broadcasted to people by viewing the news using their own perspective, or simply, American media was actually truly subjective. They did not (and perhaps still do not) deliver news as it is, but deliver it and put their own perspective on it that it the became bias. They made people believe what they believe, not what people really should believe. Particularly, the bais here was a liberal bias, in which all news were slanted by the pespective of liberal people, who were obviously, the news people themselves.

The book ran very well at first, I must admit that I do agree in the bias on news since it doesn’t happen only in America, but also in everywhere else, including in my country. But then the book (for me personally) suddenly became a propaganda. Well, precisely, a hidden propaganda. Almost from the middle to 3/4 of the book, the writer (Bernard Goldberg himself, of course blamed the media for helping feminism growing up there in America, and then he blamed American career women for bad development of American children. Well, for me, education and development of children (American, English, Chinese, Japanese, whatsoever) depend on both fathers and mothers, not only the mothers. A family is a team, all members of the family should work together to build the family, especially their children. So, even though fathers are the breadwinners going work outside, they also have the role to comfort their children and make them happy.

The second point thaat I don’t like from the book is the point about 9/11 tragedy. i know that many Arabs people out there hte Israelis so much that then they also put their hatred on America. But that’s not the exact bacground of 9/11. If the writer want to open his eyes more widely and search more, then he probably will find the treu conspiracy, or say…background, of the 9/11 tragedy.

At first, I felt a deep sympathy to the wroter for what had happened to him. But then… I just felt that this book is just about his anger and revenge that there was no one listened to him about the truth of media bias he put forward. I do agree with his finding of the media bias, but I do not agree very hard with his conservative ideas. Well, if he denied that he’s not a conservative, for me (again), he’s just simply conservative, and not liberal at all.

Rating : 3

The Kite Runner

Title : The Kite Runner

Writer : Khaled Hosseini

Year : 2003

Language : English (translated into Indonesian)

The first time I know about this story was when a TV program promoted its movie. It said that the movie is about the life in Afghanistan. Even though there is some controversy, but the controversial story is not nonsense and some part of it is even taken from a true story. Well, I could not object the defense since the writer of the scenario is an Afghan, and he transferred his scenario from his own novel. Then I borrowed the novel from my close friend, and pathetically, since I was very busy, I finished it in a month.

The plot of the story is quite unique. It starts from the now condition, and goes flash back to the childhood of the main character. Amir, an Afghan who later on moved to America because of the Taliban revolution, is a lonely boy who is dreaming hard for his father’s love. He always feels that his father never loves him sincerely and never cares about him. His only friend to ease his loneliness is Hassan, a kid of a Hazzara tribe which is considered low in Afghanistan. They are best friends, although Hassan is only the child of Amir’s servant. Secretly, Amir puts some jealousy to Hassan because he gets more attention from Amir’s father. Then, somehow, because of its jealousy, Amir plays Hassan who is obviously innocent, stupid, and uneducated.

Then the real story starts when Hassan is sodomized by Assef, a very naughty and evil boy of German descendent. Amir, who is still jealous on Hassan and only thinks about how to get his father’s attention, lets that evil act happen. Eventually, his guilty is haunting him for years after that, even after he moved to America and grows up.

Years later, Amir has to pay what he has done in the past, letting Assef sodomized Hassan. He has to go back to Afghanistan, which has been occupied and conquered by Taliban, and save Sohrab, Hassan’s son. He has to undergo many obstacles, trial, and he is almost dead. He thinks that if that can erase his guilty, then he is willing to do it.

The story is so touching that I always cried in certain part of the story, particularly in last part to the end. It’s a very amazing story, very humanistic just like Laskar Pelangi. However, this story has a more magnificent attraction which could make me cry…a lot. And be careful, it also has a very much surprise that you never expected.

Rating: 3.5