What's the general concensus around here on Eric Alterman?

[truizm]

[stevebreeze]

1. read what liberal media

it's eye opening.

[truizm]

6. I might though his latest book seems more interesting to me...

Is his analysis of the media on par with Chomsky's (I know Alterman's not a Chomsky fan)?

[stevebreeze]

18. I have read a lot of Chomsky but not any specifiably about media

So I am not able to directly compare. I thought Alterman's analysis was pretty accurate.

[librechik]

2. adorable and smart. Why doesn't Janeane date him???

she might be surprised...

[Crunchy Frog]

5. I think he's already married.

He does have a kid at any rate. Of course, maybe that shouldn't stop Janeane from dating him.:evilgrin:

[crispini]

10. Janene is also married

At least I read that somewhere on the internets, they said she'd gotten married and although they weren't together now they'd never bothered to get divorced... :shrug:

[BurtWorm]

20. I'm pretty sure I saw him at my daughter's school with his child

a couple of weeks ago, a public school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. If that was him and he was pickin up his child, I'm impressed he sends his kid to public school, because he probably doesn't have to.

[BurtWorm]

21. Read Sound and Fury: The Rise of the Punditocracy

which was one of the first books to really dissect the awfulness of modern, cable-era media whoredom. I read it because it was recommended on Media Whores Online, and I wasn't disappointed.

[saltpoint]

3. Love 'im.

I would cut this man's grass for a decade.

Just let him keep up the fine, fine writing.

If life were really fair, Eric Alterman would have been my older brother.

[redstateblues]

4. Coined The Phrase SCLM (so called liberal media)- wrote the book

[saltpoint]

9. Yes.

I followed him from early on, in those early columns for THE NATIION.

[truizm]

11. What's his best book - in your opinion?

Also, have you read "The Book on Bush" or his latest "When Presidents Lie"?

[saltpoint]

12. I haven't yet gotten to the new one --

-- but plan to.

I loved WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA? because I had grown so weary of hearing conservatives bitch about how liberal the media were.

I thought to myself, "Well, show me which media you're talking about and I will by god SUBSCRIBE."

[truizm]

13. How does his analysis of the media compare to Chomksy's?

[saltpoint]

15. Haven't read Chomsky.

I like Alterman because he covers such a vast range with a kind of human sure-footedness.

As I said up there earlier, in a fairer world, he would have been my older brother.

[MountainLaurel]

25. I've bought "When Presidents Lie"

But right now it's sitting patiently on my "to-read" shelves, waiting for me to finish Gaiman's "American Gods" and some nonfic about the decision to become a parent.

[Lauren2882]

26. Got "When Presidents Lie" as a gift for my dad for xmas...

Read 80 pages of it on the plane home. Found it riveting. Hard to part wtih it come Christmas day. He read it in 10 days and found it very informative.

[Crunchy Frog]

7. I think he's great.

I really loved his book What Liberal Media?. I've liked everything of his that I've read, although I admit I haven't been keeping up with his blog the way I'd like to.

[Misskittycat]

8. He's great. His books are a must-read for DU'ers. eom

[gmoney]

14. Jutht needth to work on that lithp...

Got "What Liberal Media?" on CD, and listening to him tongue-thrust his way through the whole thing was maddening -- distracted from a lot of his points.

[Dr.Phool]

16. I love his Nation columns

And I read Altercation every day.

[HuckleB]

17. A fair journalist who gets better every year.

I think he's also become more self-controlled. In the late '90s, he used to write articles for an online discussion "magazine/forum" called Intellectual Capital. His stuff was good, but not as good as it is now, and he would get quite emotional sometimes when discussing with the right wingers there (who were, as right wingers go, actually quite able to argue and discuss -- nothing like the freeperville creeps of today). He doesn't seem to let his emotions carry hiim anymore, which makes him a stronger advocate.

I don't think we've seen the best of Alterman yet. And, yes, that's a compliment.

[hfojvt]

19. I find that I agree with him alot

except on music and NYC.
I have been reading Altercation (his blog on MSNBC) for a while now, but I found "The Book on Bush" to be kinda dry. I have not gotten very far in it. But these days, I do not read much away from the computer anyway.
I think you can read alot of his short work at The Nation on-line.

[rolleitreks]

22. It's "concensus", not "general concensus". n/t

[Tangledog]

24. No it isn't; it's "consensus" (n/t)

[vixengrl]

23. His take on American news media is spot-on IMHO--

and his writing is interesting and entertaining--not dry and scholarly--but smart! Always smart! I check out his blog a couple times a week, too.