Tim Groseclose at The Volokh Conspiracy

The Volokh Conspiracy hosted Tim Groseclose as a guest blogger. Prof. Groseclose discussed his book
Prof. Timothy Groseclose (UCLA Political Science) Guest-Blogging

I’m delighted to report that Prof. Timothy Groseclose of UCLA’s Political Science Department will be guest-blogging this week about his new book, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind. The topic (captured well in the title) will surely be controversial, but Prof. Groseclose is an experienced and sophisticated political science scholar; and though the book is written for the general public and not an academic audience, it reflects his expertise.

My New Book, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind

This week, thanks to the invitation of my friend and colleague Eugene Volokh, I will guest-blog about my book Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind. I am extremely honored and grateful for the opportunity.

An Unplanned Response to Comments about my book, Left Turn
Trying to Understand the Methodology of “Left Turn”
My Reply to Orin Kerr
Methodologies
Why Do Politicians Cite Think Tanks?: A Reply to Groseclose

If I’m right about these differences, then comparing journalist-citations and politician-citations seems a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Of course, I would imagine the two correlate somewhat. It’s easy to see why. If a journalist has very liberal views, they will probably see the range of reasonable opinion as tilting to the left; and if a politician is very liberal, they will probably only find liberal think tanks to support their views. So a correlation makes sense. But as I understand it, the paper is not assuming that the two correlate. Rather, the paper assumes that the two measure exactly the same thing, and then seeks to show that that the media is biased because journalist-citations don’t exactly match the citation practices of a centrist politician. That seems like a weak assumption given the very different reasons journalists and politicians cite think tanks.

Case Study of an L.A. Times Article
Case Study of an L.A. Times Article

As I explain, the bias in the article came not from any false statements that the author wrote but from true statements that she omitted.

My Response to Prof. Kerr’s Reply to My Response
An Update on My UCLA-Admissions Controversy
Orin Kerr responds with Assumptions Built into the Proof of Media Bias

“Corporate Media” Theory
This is the theory that media outlets are corporations, corporations are conservative, and therefore there is no liberal media bias.
Well, media bosses aren't all that conservative, and even if they were...

Suppose you were the journalist’s corporate boss. And suppose you had complete control over what she wrote. Even if that were true, how would you know the facts that she failed to report? And if you didn’t know those facts, how could you force her to report them?

My Last Post as a Guest Blogger: Thanks and Adieu

I can announce today that as of next Monday (Sept. 5) I will become one of the official bloggers for Ricochet.com.