Walton and Johnson - The Radio Gawds

May 24th, 2012

The Amateur by Edward Klein

Democratic political operatives have been furious in their denunciations of author Ed Klein and his new book The Amateur, a biography of President Obama which relies heavily (although not entirely) on anonymous sources to paint a highly unflattering picture of its subject.

That is to be expected but surely Klein's tales might make for good television. Supposedly, journalists care primarily about a good story more than anything else. And Klein's book certainly has them, including secret feuds between First Lady Michelle Obama and TV billionaire Oprah Winfrey as well as tales of former president Bill Clinton privately bashing Barack Obama as an "amateur." Unfortunately for Klein, however, he is being almost totally ignored by the elite media.

According to a Nexis search of television news transcripts, not one of them has interviewed him on-air. His name hasn't even been mentioned by ABC, CBS, CNN, or NBC. MSNBC gave him a tiny mention in a segment condemning conservatives for opposing Obama but didn’t talk about him except in passing.

The closest any network has come to actually discussing the book was ABC News, which included an item in the section of the network's Website entitled "The Note," which is produced by reporter Michael Falcone, on Friday, May 11:

"'The country needs you!' the former president told Hillary Clinton, urging her to run this year, according to accounts of the conversation included in Edward Klein's new biography of Obama...whom Bill Clinton said, according to book excerpts, 'is an amateur.'"

But even that excerpt was picked up from a story in the New York Post written by Carl Campanile that trumpeted the headline "Bill Blockbuster: O's an 'Amateur.'"

The book has drawn the attention of some of the major newspapers--none of which is positive--including a review by Janet Maslin in the New York Times which lambasted Klein in the first paragraph as follows:

"'The Amateur' by Edward Klein is a book about an inept, arrogant ideologue who maintains an absurdly high opinion of his own talents even as he blatantly fails to achieve his goals. Oh, and President Obama is in this book, too."

Maslin maintained that same tone throughout the piece.

Not surprisingly, the media have a double standard when it comes to book authors making gossipy accusations against Republicans and Democrats. Regarding Dems, they will refuse to report on them at all, such as the Klein book or also the adultery accusations against former presidential candidate John Edwards. Regarding Republicans, however, they jump at the chance to do so.

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