Myths They Live By

The following comment by a well-educated (Ph.D.) left-leaning friend on an email list:

“It's … known that, among Americans who have passports, about twice as many favour Kerry as favour Bush. The younger and those with a more global perspective do not seem to be very enthusiastic about GWB, on the whole.”

He has his demographics wrong. This is the left-wing stereotype of the Republican. In fact, the average Republican in the US is younger than the average Democrat. The college-educated are more likely to be Republican than Democrat. I haven't seen a study, but given the proportion of US military, overseas ballots (those literally with a more global perspective) probably favour Bush.

And the cyberworld seems rather to the right of at least other media. Witness the blogosphere vs. CBS recently. Yahoo Groups lists 245 Conservative email lists, 90 Liberal. On Googlefight, Republican beats Democrat 7,210,000 to 3,540,000; Conservative beats Liberal 7,220,000 to 3,500,000.


CBC Press Bias

Does the following headline really fit the story? The first and last lines are given below.


AUDIT PROVES LIBERAL BOOKS CLEAN, SAYS PARTY PRESIDENT

“Liberal party audits show that more than $1.5 million in donations came from companies involved in the federal sponsorship scandal.

… Conservative MP John Williams, who headed a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal, says they provide evidence of kickbacks.

‘The way this appears on the surface, this is kickbacks by the advertising agencies to the Liberal Party of Canada,’ said Williams.”


FULL STORY:http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/10/01/liberal_audit041001.html