Groseclose on Media Bias

Tim Groseclose's  Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind is on my hopelessly long and growing reading list. I have had the privilege of enjoying his writings on Ricochet. I can tell from his posts that he is very rigorous and diligent in his work. He believes in the science part of political science and has worked to come up with a scientific way of measuring a person's political views and the media's bias. 


If you like some interaction then you'll like this book because there is a quiz you can take that will tell you what your PQ is, which stands for political quotient. Your PQ is where you are on the political spectrum. The average American's PQ score is 50.4 and your score is higher if more liberal and lower if more conservative. For the media he gives them an SQ (slant quotient) which is structured the same way and is based on 20 media outlets that Dr. Groseclose evaluated. The New York Times and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut both have an SQ and PQ, respectively, of 74. That means the paper has the same bias as a speech Sen. Lieberman gives on the floor. His research showed that 18 out of the 20 outlets were more liberal. His approach is to look at the facts that the media mention in order to determine where their bias lies. It's not really meant to show that one station or newspaper lies while another doesn't. 

You will have noticed by now that this book is for the analytic mind, especially quantitative analysis. This book is perfect for you if you like statistics, political science, or economics. However, he does write the book, and everything else for publication, in an accessible way and even the layman can find something useful and informative about in it. 


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/12/can-math-prove-media-bias/?page=all