Now that he has his bogus "documentary" about media bias in the 2008 campaign -- built on a false premise and laughably bad data -- all ready for sale to the wingnuttery-consuming public, John Ziegler has been making the rounds on TV -- mostly Fox News, because his appearances on other networks have been so unprofessional and contentious that they likely won't have him back.
He was on Bill O'Reilly's show Monday, and then popped up on Glenn Beck's program yesterday. It's really a prime display in complete wingnuttery, especially as Ziegler lets everyone in the country see what a complete and utter a-hole he really is.
But then, as Heather noted this morning, we knew that about Ziegler from his appearance on a dating show last year, thanks to the fine folks at Political Carnival:
Meanwhile, regarding that media bias thing:
'Liberal bias?' IU professors find network TV election coverage favors Republicans
A visual analysis of television presidential campaign coverage from 1992 to 2004 suggests that the three television broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- favored Republicans in each election, according to two Indiana University professors in a new book.
"We don't think this is journalists conspiring to favor Republicans. We think they're just so beat up and tired of being accused of a liberal bias that they unknowingly give Republicans the benefit in coverage," said Grabe, who also is a research associate in political science at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. "It's self-censorship that journalists might be imposing on themselves."
Grabe and Bucy's book is the culmination of the first major research project analyzing the relatively unexplored territory of visual coverage in presidential elections and how that influences public opinion. Between 1992 and 2004, they found, candidates were steadily shown more visually, in what they call image bites, while their verbal statements, or sound bites, decreased in average length.
They examined 62 hours of broadcast network news coverage -- a total of 178 newscasts -- between Labor Day and Election Day over four U.S. presidential elections between 1992 and 2004. Cable news outlets, including CNN and Fox News, were not included in their research. The professors are now looking at 2008 election coverage.
I'm wagering their analysis of the 2008 coverage reaches a similar conclusion.
Of course, guys like John Ziegler will just dismiss this kind of data as further proof of "liberal media bias."
