Left Turn

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes
But I can't live that way
--Natasha Bedingfield

I recently completed Tim Groseclose's Left Turn, a book on liberal bias in the media. Groseclose is a rare bird. He's thrived in the big league academic world, a world dominated by liberals, despite being a vocal conservative. He is a full professor at UCLA, and holds joint appointments in the school's political science and economics depts. Previous appointments include CalTech, Stanford, Ohio State, and Carnegie Mellon.

He has been interested in media bias for some time, but it was his 2005 paper coauthored with Jeff Milyo (Univ of Missouri) that elevated his work to elite levels. The paper, "A Measure of Media Bias," was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Currently in its 126th volume, QJE is a mecca for academics who aspire to place economic-oriented research in top tier journals.

In the paper, Groseclose and Milyo present their approach for measuring media bias. That approach in large part forms the basis for Left Turn.

What makes the original paper's publication in QJE even more interesting is that the journal is controlled by editors at Harvard, a bastion for liberal bias in the arts and sciences. What this implies is that Groseclose and Milyo's work was rock solid in its approach, lest it would have been unable to navigate the editorial gauntlet that surely was looking to riddle holes in the paper (those who have been thru the process understand what this means).

Stated differently, as much as Groseclose and Milyo's (2005) work likely ran counter to the beliefs of QJE editors and reviewers, the editorial staff could not find a legitimate reason to reject the paper--unless the staff was to turn intellectually dishonest.

Interestingly, it was after the publication of this paper in QJE that prestigious institutions around the country began offering Groseclose endowed chairs. Groseclose chose to remain at UCLA, where he is currently the Marvin Hoffenberg Chair of American Politics.

Not surprisingly, the media has failed to widely embrace the findings of the original paper or the subsequent book. But Groseclose's (2011) Left Turn is a compelling and interesting read. In posts to come I plan to record some of my key takeways so that I can hopefully retain them more effectively.

References

Groseclose, T. 2011. Left turn: How liberal media bias distorts the American mind. New York: St Martin's Press.

Groseclose, T. & Milyo, J. 2005. A measure of media bias. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 120(4): 1191-1237.