Administrators should recognize both the social biases that hurt students of certain backgrounds and the growing biases within their institutions that stunt intellectual inquiry, sterilize campus life, devalue research and diplomas, and deprive the public of the kinds of places they want to send their offspring.
Professors do future journalists and the reading public no favors by teaching students that a left-wing narrative trumps the facts.
Professors do future journalists and the reading public no favors by teaching students that a left-wing narrative trumps the facts.
News organizations need to exercise consistency when pointing to past actions that public actors would rather forget.
Ben Shapiro’s fascinating new book Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV makes us think about television as we never have before, much in the same way Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism made us think about modern liberalism.
For committed political junkies, and even ordinary Americans, the fact that The New York Times is a left-wing newspaper comes as no surprise. From the editorial page to news copy to cultural reviews, the Gray Lady operates from a liberal worldview — and a blatant one at that. William McGowan has done newspaper aficionados a service by giving us a birds-eye view of the Times’ journalistic malpractice, mainly over the last two decades. The many tales of woe come neatly packaged in a 276-page tome titled Gray Lady Down: What the Decline and Fall of The New York Times Means for America.
I’ve given a lot of thought to the issue of declining circulation among daily newspapers. I was managing editor of one for a 15-year period that coincided with the downward trend. I swear it wasn’t my fault. In fact, what I learned during that period was that newspapers, enamored as they are of liberal orthodoxy and political correctness, are simply unable to solve the problem.
Another debate has broken out at UNC-Chapel Hill about a controversial freshmen reading assignment. Expect charges of "censorship" to swirl, obscuring the real issues.
• Robert L. Tignor, et al: Worlds Together, Worlds Apart; W.W. Norton & Co.; 2002; 462pp.; $62.50
UNC-CH faculty members have announced another sorry choice for a freshmen reading assignment -- proving once again that they don't understand what all the fuss was about.
Governing, the magazine that covers American state and local government, has just issued a biased ranking that condemns the tax policy of fast-growing states and praises the tax policy of those with under-performing economies. Talk about missing the point.
