Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind

By Tim Groseclose

Book Overview

Dr. Tim Groseclose, a professor of political science and economics at UCLA, has spent years constructing precise, quantitative measures of the slant of media outlets. He does this by measuring the political content of news, as a way to measure the PQ, or "political quotient" of voters and politicians. Among his conclusions are: (i) all mainstream media outlets have a liberal bias; and (ii) while some supposedly conservative outlets--such the "Washington Times "or Fox News' S"pecial Report"--do lean right, their conservative bias is less than the liberal bias of most mainstream outlets. Groseclose contends that the general leftward bias of the media has shifted the PQ of the average American by about 20 points, on a scale of 100, the difference between the current political views of the average American, and the political views of the average resident of Orange County, California or Salt Lake County, Utah. With "Left Turn "readers can easily calculate their own PQ--to decide for themselves if the bias exists. This timely, much-needed study brings fact to this often overheated debate.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312555938
• ISBN13: 9780312555931
• Release Date: July 2011
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.4" x 1.1" x 5.9"