Tag Archives: Bias

How objective are scientists about their research, given their political views?

Hot Air linked to this Pew Research poll about the beliefs and attitudes of researchers in the scientific fields.

Excerpt:

More than half of the scientists surveyed (55%) say they are Democrats, compared with 35% of the public. Fully 52% of the scientists call themselves liberals; among the public, just 20% describe themselves as liberals. Many of the scientists surveyed mentioned in their open-ended comments that they were optimistic about the Obama administration’s likely impact on science.

For its part, the public does not perceive scientists as a particularly liberal group. When asked whether they think of scientists as liberal, conservative or neither in particular, nearly two-thirds (64%) choose the latter option. Just 20% say they think of scientists as politically liberal. However, a majority of scientists (56%) do see members of their profession as liberal.

Most scientists had heard at least a little about claims that government scientists were not allowed to report research findings that conflicted with the Bush administration’s point of view. And the vast majority (77%) says that these claims are true. By contrast, these claims barely registered with the public – more than half heard nothing at all about this issue. Only about a quarter of the public (28%) said they thought the claims were true.

Both scientists and the public overwhelmingly say it is appropriate for scientists to become active in political debates about such issues as nuclear power or stem cell research. Virtually all scientists (97%) endorse their participation in debates about these issues, while 76% of the public agrees.

I think it helps to make the point I was making earlier about the fraudulent science used to support global warming and Darwinian evolution. Many scientists have an agenda. They get paid by the government. The bigger government is, the better they get paid. Therefore, many are Democrats. Scientists tend to be biased in favor of material entities and explanations. Morality is non-material. Scientists therefore tend to resent the idea that moral claims are knowledge. They prefer to have autonomy from non-material moral rules. Therefore, many are atheists.

There are some dissenters of course. But these are rare.

What can the political contributions of journalists tell us about media bias?

Commenter ECM sent me this link from Ace of Spades.

The story is from Riehl Worldview.

Excerpt:

In the face of ABC’s pending Obamanation on health care reform, that’s especially troubling given the tremendous imbalance in ABC’s record of recent political contributions.

None of the four McCain contributors, which includes Elizabeth Hasselbeck, are from journalists at ABC. Meanwhile, approximately 130 ABC employees gave money to Obama. That’s close to a 33 – 1 ratio. Yet, ABC officially announced that they and they alone would manage what questions were asked of Obama about his program, including from the audience.

It strikes me as simply unwise to entrust such a significant portion of the debate around a policy that will impact American lives, potentially forever, to just one organization with such an imbalance in their political views.

An analysis of contributions to the Obama and McCain campaign shows that ABC employees contributed more than $160,000 to the Obama campaign versus less than $5,000 to the McCain campaign.

And ECM also sent me this link on Ace of Spades.

Apparently, the left-wing New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are re-writing headlines to make Obama look better, despite polls showing that the public is growing increasingly disenchanted with his amateurish bumbling.

Ace writes:

The NYT poll I hadn’t heard of, so I clicked on it. The headline…
Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care

…But the article originally ran with a more interesting headline, as the Rhetorican notes.
In Poll, Obama Is Seen as Ineffective on the Economy

…Similarly, the WSJ article on their own poll went from…
Rising Doubts Threaten to Overshadow Obama’s Agenda

to…
Public Wary of Deficit, Economic Intervention

Here are my previous posts on media bias at the left-wing ABCNews and the left-wing MSNBC.

ABCNews refuses to allow Republican response to Obama’s health care propaganda

ABC News sheds all pretense of objectivity. (H/T Hot Air)

Drudge reports: (H/T Gateway Pundit)

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

Republicans asked for a response, as is customary:

As the national debate on health care reform intensifies, I am deeply concerned and disappointed with ABC’s astonishing decision to exclude opposing voices on this critical issue on June 24, 2009. Next Wednesday, ABC News will air a primetime health care reform “town hall” at the White House with President Barack Obama. In addition, according to an ABC News report, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WORLD NEWS, NIGHTLINE and ABC’s web news “will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda.” This does not include the promotion, over the next 9 days, the president’s health care agenda will receive on ABC News programming.

ABC posted a rejection on their blog. (H/T Michelle Malkin)

I hope we can all agree that a robust debate of health care issues and potential policies is in order.

and below their rejection letter:

The comments to this entry are closed.

Gateway Pundit notes:

The last time Obama held a “town hall meeting” in the White House ALL of the participants were campaign supporters.

The Director of Communications for the White House Office of Health Reform, since last month, is former ABC News correspondent Linda Douglass.

Shouldn’t they at least pretend to be objective?

UPDATE: Stop the ACLU writes that they also refused commercials that opposed Obama’s health care plan.