Tim Groseclose: Media Bias is Worse Than You Think
Yesterday afternoon I interviewed Tim Groseclose of UCLA for Uncommon Knowledge. Tim is a real bird of paradise--young, irresistibly engaging, and such a wonderfully accomplished political scientist and economist that bigtime universities (in addition to holding a tenured chair at UCLA, Tim has taught at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and Harvard) more or less have to take him seriously, despite his openly conservative politics.
Our topic: Tim's new book, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind.
For years, of course, conservatives have been saying that the mainstream media is biased. Tim takes the complaint, investigates it, and then proves it. And then? He shows that it matters--much more than you may have supposed. From Left Turn:
My results suggest that media bias aids Democratic candidates about 8 to 10 percentage points in a typical election. I find, for instance, that if media bias didn’t exist, then John McCain would have defeated Barack Obama 56-42, instead of losing 53-46.
That's the bad news.
The good news? That Tim will be joining us as a guest contributor next week. If you have questions or comments you'd like to send him, start typing. (I happen to know that he's a faithful, not to say addicted, reader.)
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Aug '11
Re: Tim Groseclose: Media Bias is Worse Than You Think
Ô coincidence! Just received a copy of this in the mail yesterday from my dad, who's had a long-standing interest in media bias and is now working on a book of his own. I've been trying to bring him on board Ricochet and I'm hoping the prospect of Gloseclose as guest contributor may finally seal the deal. Look forward to reading the book and discussing it further!
May '10
Re: Tim Groseclose: Media Bias is Worse Than You Think
Perhaps Congress can mandate that each news channel's Political Quotient be chyroned at regular intervals during the broadcast. Sort of a Fairness Doctrine only, uh...fair. It may not change any minds, but it sure as heck would make MSNBC a lot more entertaining.