Just in time for our discussion about Bernard Goldberg's "Bias" comes John Tierney's latest New York Times column about the prevailing liberal ideology in the nation's J-schools (and law schools). Writing about the composition of the faculties at such schools, the libertarian Tierney wrote:
Only one journalism school, the University of Kansas, had a preponderance of Republicans (by 10 to 8). ...The ratio was 4 to 1 at Northwestern and New York University, 13 to 1 at the University of Southern California, 15 to 1 at Columbia. Some academics argue that their political ideologies don't affect the way they teach, which to me is proof of how detached they've become from reality in their monocultures.
In this environment, Tierney claims, young conservatives and libertarians "have simply given up on the traditional media either as a source of news or as a place to work."
If true, it's a serious problem that needs to be addressed. After all, in a recent Pew poll , conservatives account for one-third of the U.S. population, and with the amount of other media options available in this environment, news organizations can't afford to lose such a large portion of their audience.
But what, if anything, can be done to make schools and the media more representative of the country they represent? Tierney, ever the libertarian, doesn't believe any outside intervention is necessary, saying that "this is one of those many problems that doesn't require a solution by the government." Likewise, liberals, like Eric Alterman, author of the next book on our class' reading list, "What Liberal Media?", would argue that liberal bias by the media is overrated and doesn't need to be addressed. So what's the solution?
I, like most who have commented on the issue, don't have the foggiest idea how to fix the problem. But, for entertainment value, it sure would be fun to see liberal schools like our own institute an affirmative action policy to put more conservatives on their faculty. It's a solution no one would embrace.
Christie Rizk @ October 11, 2005 - 4:16pm
I was going to do a post on this column, but since you beat me to it, what I was going to say is that there are probably a preponderance of liberals in the media, or in J-schools, because we tend to be more open-minded, and willing to see things other people's way. Conservatives tend to see things in black and white, when life is really shades of gray. Since it's harder to classify news in a conservative manner - except if you work for FOX - coservatives tend to shy away from the profession.
I apologize if any of you are conservatives/Republicans and don't feel the way I described. I was, of course, speaking in generalities.
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