Eric Alterman Quotes

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Eric Alterman

Profession : Writer

Birth : January 14, 1960

The ability of the 1 percent to buy politicians and regulators is nothing new in American politics - just as inequality has been a permanent part of our economic system. This is true of virtually all political and economic systems.

Eric Alterman

If newspapers were a baseball team, they would be the Mets - without the hope for those folks at the very pinnacle of the financial food chain - who average nearly $24 million a year in income - 'next year.'

Eric Alterman

America's great newspapers have staffs that range from 50 percent to 70 percent of what they were just a few years ago.

Eric Alterman

President Obama has lowered taxes more than he has raised them, and they are today lower than they were in President Reagan's time. But you don't hear conservatives crowing about that.

Eric Alterman

Ironically, tendency to ignore inconvenient facts and unwelcome evidence is actually President Reagan's true legacy, as I noted in 'The Nation' back in 2000, before the current right-wing mania for President Reagan gained its full force.

Eric Alterman

Over one in five American children is living in poverty, and the number is rising.

Eric Alterman

Americans have always evinced some distrust of government, but the current situation has exacerbated this to a degree that may be unprecedented.

Eric Alterman

As with almost every significant aspect of the Bush presidency, its handling of 9/11 was a catastrophe from start to finish.

Eric Alterman

Liberals believe that they can't get a fair shake from the media anymore.

Eric Alterman

Local politics, like everything else, are not what they used to be. But the fact is that our political system - like our physical existence - still breaks down along geographical lines.

Eric Alterman

Whether people care enough about local news to pay for it is, sadly, an entirely different question than whether our democracy requires a strong watchdog function at the local level to ensure safeguards against abuse, chicanery, and outright dishonesty.

Eric Alterman

The Economist is undoubtedly the smartest weekly newsmagazine in the English language. I always look forward to its quirky year-end double issue.

Eric Alterman

American journalists tend to treat inequality as a fact of life. But it needn't be.

Eric Alterman

Fox News is nothing if not impressive. No matter how harsh the criticism it endures, the network somehow always manages to prove itself even worse than we had previously imagined.

Eric Alterman

This trend of reporting process over substance is unfortunate, if omnipresent. Even worse is the media's inability - or unwillingness - to fact-check Republicans who are angry about the Democrats trying to debate and vote on Iraq policy.

Eric Alterman

The myth of the liberal media empowers conservatives to control debate in the United States to the point where liberals cannot even hope for a fair shake anymore.

Eric Alterman

For the past eight years, the right has been better at working the refs. Now the left is learning how to play the game.

Eric Alterman

Warren Buffett pays taxes on a smaller percentage of his billions in income than his cleaning lady.

Eric Alterman

The consequences of President Johnson's campaign of deliberate deception regarding Vietnam could hardly have been more catastrophic for the nation, the military, the president, his party, and the presidency itself.

Eric Alterman

Newspaper companies are losing advertisers, readers, market value, and, in some cases, their sense of mission at a pace that would have been barely imaginable just four years ago.

Eric Alterman