No one ever accused Bernard Goldberg of pulling his punches. The broadcast journalist's past two books pummeled the "media elite" with claims of left-leaning bias.

But a best-selling author can't live on media bashing alone. In his new book, Goldberg broadens his target, denouncing a new batch of annoying people - and this time, some of them aren't even in the media.

Goldberg's book is titled 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. (HarperCollins, $25.95).

Who are these irritants wreaking havoc? For starters, Number 72 is someone near, if not always dear, to our hearts: Our old friend, Ward Churchill.

"Actually, I'm of the school that believes Ward Churchill should be allowed to keep his job," Goldberg writes in a rare conciliatory moment. "Generally speaking, I don't think anyone should be fired for his opinions, no matter how loathsome they are. . . ."

The better question, he says, is "How did a guy like this get to be a tenured professor in the first place?'

Of course, there are 99 others who will also feel the pain of Goldberg's rapid-fire, blunt diatribes, including: Barbara Walters, Anna Nicole Smith, Howard Dean, George Soros, Al Gore, Bill Moyers, Al Franken and Gloria Steinem.

Most are liberals, but the author throws in the occasional right-winger to balance things out. (Consider yourself warned, Michael Savage. ) And, to his credit, Goldberg seems to have broader goals in mind than mere partisan preaching. Unfortunately, he's often as hypocritical as he is provocative.

He makes a plea for "civility, mutual respect, a semblance of decency," for example, in a book dominated by attacks. And he denounces the "crap" that comes from televisions and radios, and out of the mouths of "Hollywood blowhards," "cultural-elite hypocrites," "America bashers" and "intellectual thugs." Which, of course, only makes one wonder: Should a guy railing against the vulgarity of our modern culture be using words like "crap" in his book?

Regardless, it's the sort of catchy title that will likely attract the large number of readers he's had in the past - minus the obvious 100.