The Shape of the Playing Field, Part 5

“Shut Up!” They Explained

Writer Mark Steyn has documented the slow decline of free speech (for conservatives, anyway) around the globe.  Unfortunately, Minnesota is busily manufacturing fresh examples to add to Steyn’s sad tally.

Nearly 200 U of M professors object to Condoleezza Rice's speech.  Yes, professors at Minnesota’s flagship public university—and temple of free inquiry—object to hosting a speech this week by George Bush’s Secretary of State.

Anatomy of Bias: New York Times [Updated]

Media bias is turning out to be the theme of the week.  In this edition of “Anatomy of Bias,” we take a look at a national story with a suspiciously local angle.

The Anatomy of Bias: Minnesota Public Radio

You would think that, at this late hour in the proceedings, the question of whether the legacy news media exhibit political bias would be settled.  And for the most part it is.  Polling conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2012 indicates that 67 percent of the population believes that the media is biased either “a fair amount” or “a great deal.”  Pew reports that,

The number of Americans who believe there is a great deal of political bias in news coverage has edged up to [a record] 37% from 31% four years ago.  Republicans continue to express more concern about media bias than do Democrats, but the rise in recent years has occurred across party lines.

Still, it’s a lesson worth relearning from time to time.  A more interesting question would be how such biases present themselves.  It is still relatively rare that a legacy media figure will make flat out statements along the lines of “Republicans are bad, Democrats are good.”