Media Bias.

Dartmouth Professor Jim A. Kuypers has a book about to be released called

Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues. The book examines press bias with regards to two controversial issues — race and homosexuality — that never receive fair and equitable analysis from the Fourth Estate. Several fellow ’01s may remember this book from a seminar on conservative rhetoric that Professor Kuypers taught our senior spring; we read an excerpt from the draft that covered a June 1998 interview with Trent Lott on the Armstrong Williams Show. (Many of you will remember that interview; it caused a mild sensation when Lott said that homosexuality was a “sin” and compared it to disorders like kleptomania. Activists went apoplectic.)

The book draws some interesting and unexpected conclusions, to wit: “The mainstream press in America operate within a narrow range of liberal beliefs. Those with more conservative views will certainly feel the brunt of the press’s bias. However, those who embrace moderate political beliefs will be hurt when they step to the right of the press position. The press will actively help certain politicians and social leaders on the left who espouse the same view of the country that the press has adopted. However, those who step beyond this narrow brand of liberal reporting, moving even further to the left, will be ignored or denigrated. In this manner, then, the American press acts to shut out the full range of political voices in the country.”

Watch for reviews.