Conservative talk show host Dennis Prager launched an innovative new online college to fight liberal bias, Prager University. Today, College Insurrection is pleased to promote its course on PROVING MEDIA BIAS.

This week alone, there has been an astonishing wealth of stories detailing the biased “news” reports that seemingly aid and abet the Obama Administration [e.g. ignoring Obama’s composite history, withholding tapes of potentially damaging statements made by the President, selectively releasing material from a videotape of Mitt Romney to hurt the GOP campaign, and insisting our embassy in Libya was attacked after a protest over a film (instead of being the terror attack that it actually was)].  Therefore, it is a good time to take a look at the following video presentation by UCLA Economics professor, Tim Groseclose:

VIDEO – Prager University/Proving Media Bias

Groseclose is the author of Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind, which mathematically demonstrates how our press creates a much more liberal viewpoint among Americans. His publication is the basis for the course, which hits the four following points:

• Over 90% of Washington D.C. journalists are vote Democratic (a rate higher than that of deep blue sphere, Berkeley, CA); while this doesn’t necessarily mean  professional journalists distort how they report material, it does influence which items they cover and which they do not.

• Media bias is most apparent when analyzing which news stories are NOT discussed in the press.  For example, when Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones resigned  after stories of his past Communist affiliations and far left activism surfaced, the mainstream media glossed over the details.

• The amount of media influence over American popular opinion can be quantified by analyzing the public’s PQ (Political Quotient) and the journalists’ SQ (Slant Quotient).

• A look at the numbers show that media bias impacts American attitudes:  When adjusted so that there is no “SQ”, citizens would hold opinions more consistent with Red States than Purple States.

Groseclose is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics at UCLA and has appointments in the political science and economics departments at that institution.  Last week, College Insurrection promoted his course on the Laffer Curve, which attempts to answer the question, “Do High Taxes Raise More Money?”