MetaFilter posts tagged with bias

Too fat to pass.

Ouisch — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:37:24 -0800

25 students at Lincoln University may not graduate, because they failed -- to lose weight. The students are members of "the first graduating class required to either have a BMI below 30 or to take 'Fitness for Life,' a one semester class that mixes exercise, nutritional instruction and discussion of the risks of obesity" in order to graduate from Lincoln. In a similar vein, you may remember last year's piece of stunt legislation that would have banned fat people from eating in Mississippi restaurants. The bill did not pass into law. The Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity conducts research on weight bias, and has found that bias against fat people is prevalent in employment, health care settings, interpersonal relationships, media, and education. Other scholars have recently suggested that the stigma attached to body size may contribute to diseases thought to be caused by obesity.

Fox "upset-the-White-House-won't-call-it" News

ADoubtfulTrout — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:34:57 -0800

Fox News's bent on the news is well known, but recently the White House has begun actively excluding the network, including skipping Fox's Chris Wallace on a recent round of Sunday morning news shows. “We simply decided to stop abiding by the fiction ... that Fox is a traditional news organization.” says White House Depty Communications Director Pfeiffer (as has Press Secretary Gibbs and others). The responses range from concern about an attempt to control the media to a feeling that it's about time. Is it just about Fox's anti-Obama pundits, or is it also about Fox's consistent errors and misinformed viewership? Or is the White House attempting containment so that Fox's ratings-gold style and ideas don't take over the rest of the press?

Empathy = ovary?

hayvac — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:32:57 -0800

When President Obama says he's looking for a judge with the "quality of empathy" to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, is it code for a female judge? In the two decades since Bertha Wilson famously asked Will Women Judges Really Make A Difference? (mms), the answer has come back as a resounding yes (studies: 1 (pdf), 2) -- and no (studies: 1 (pdf), 2). But either way, is choosing judges based on supposed gender qualities ever a good idea?

Good News, Everyone!

WCityMike — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:05:27 -0800

Maybe the world isn't as good as this (more on that), but there's still ... good news, everyone! Lately, the news is so depressing lately that even the NBC Nightly News anchors need cheering up. Brian Williams' nightly broadcasts became so depressing his viewers complained (start at 1:00 into the video), and so he reached out and asked his viewers to pass along good news. They gave him plenty (RSS), enough to start a series, "Making a Difference." This need for optimistic news, noticed even by PR agencies, has guided U.K. papers like the East London Yellow Advertiser and the Burton Mail to run "good news only" pages or editions. But these papers are hardly the very first forays of the press or populace into the realm of good news. "If it bleeds, it leads" may be a fairly popular pressroom sentiment, but not in the following venues ... Twitter has the Los Angeles Times' Good News Twitter channel (RSS, replies, replies RSS); Optimistic News (RSS, replies, replies RSS, Facebook); happytweets (RSS, replies, replies RSS); and the search keyword #goodnews (RSS). Delicious.Com has busy tags for goodnews (RSS) and optimism (RSS). LiveJournal communities have a few good "good news"-aggregating communities, such as Happy News (RSS), OnlyGoodNews (RSS), Helpers (RSS), and Only_Good_News. Heck, if fed the right search terms, Google News (RSS) can sometimes even turn up glimmers of hope amongst such a barren landscape as mainstream media reporting. But the MSM just dabbles in good news; there are plenty of sites whose very purpose has been to provide a "good news" counterbalance to the "bad news" bias often seen in modern-day media. There are the big five "good news" monoliths: Happy News (RSS), Good News Now (RSS²), Global Good News³ (RSS⁴), Good News Daily, and Now Public: Good News (RSS). There's the Good News Network (RSS), Only Positive News (RSS), or Simply Happy News (RSS). There are the websites of magazines such as Ode Magazine (RSS) (who bill themselves as being "for intelligent optimists") and YES! Magazine (RSS). There's Things are Good (RSS), Optimism World (RSS), or Gimundo (RSS). There's Good News Blog (RSS), and the Good News Broadcast (RSS, video podcast, podcast RSS). There's the Digg-like Great News Network (RSS), as well as Heroic Stories (RSS) and Positive News From Around the World. There is, as earlier recommended on Ask Metafilter, the Speculist's Better All The Time (RSS⁵) — as well as GiftAnonymous, about random acts of (relatively non-saccharine) kindness, and the CSM's Making a Difference section. And there's DarynKagan.Com (RSS) (warning: autoplay.). [As well as all of this wrapped up into one big-ass RSS feed. :)] * * * * * * * * ¹And its columnists, which don't appear to be in its RSS feed: David Pollay (RSS), WonderQuest (RSS), Craig Harris (RSS), Silent Kimbly (RSS), Susan Scholl (RSS), and Reasons to Be Hopeful (RSS). ²A Yahoo! Pipes unification of a few subsections, which I'll provide here separately in case I ever forget and zap the pipe: green RSS, health RSS, heroes RSS, video RSS, more good news RSS. ³Although most of the sites linked-to herein aren't particularly religious (on purpose – searching for "good news" results in a heavy pollination of Christian sites amongst the search engine results), this one seems to be run by adherents of TM; however, its selection of covered positive news stories doesn't seem to be particularly biased towards that, and it appeared to be a site that was kept fairly well up-to-date. ⁴Yahoo! Pipe RSS feed created to filter only the news items starting with the phrase 'Positive:'. Original RSS feed. ⁵Yahoo! Pipe RSS feed created to include only this feature. Original RSS feed. * * * * * * * * Postscript: Not directly on point, but still worth including, there's an interesting blog post about Internet Optimists vs. Pessimists and the Internet personalities each kind of person cites, as well as a really interesting TED talk by Marty Seligman, the author of Learned Optimism.

Consider my opinion changed.

fantabulous timewaster — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:58:48 -0800

Overcoming Bias [via]

Olbermann and Matthews demoted

VicNebulous — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:59:52 -0800

MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign.

Trust in Textbooks

binturong — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:44:56 -0800

The things they teach kids in school today. Details in the pdf. From science to history to law, evidence of increasing political bias in education.

Rigging a study to make conservatives look stupid

veedubya — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 07:34:43 -0800

Rigging a study to make conservatives look stupid.

Race in basketball

Aloysius Bear — Wed, 02 May 2007 10:55:46 -0800

Are NBA referees racially biased when calling fouls? In a paper [PDF] released yesterday, economists Wolfers and Price claim that an all-white team would win two extra games over an 82-game season.

Not a first for Imus

Postroad — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:52:55 -0800

Name calling not unusual for Imus Imus has of course made an apology at his blog. And sometime soon, I expect, he will shoot off his big mouth again. His recent offensive remarks are not a new thing for this guy, a pompous "pundit," and simple "sorrys" would be ok except for his history of being a bad human being. And, yes: homophobic remarks too, lest he be accused of being picky in his hate

What's up with you, Doc?

Gyan — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 23:06:03 -0800

What's the Trouble? - "How Doctors Think"

persecution complex? prosecution complex?

amberglow — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:13:18 -0800

The First Freedom Project --new from the Dept of Justice, announced at the Southern Baptist Convention along with a call for their help---specifically and only to protect the religious from discrimination against them. Many are not impressed: The administration has often ignored the importance of the no establishment principle by supporting attempts of governments to endorse a religious message, using tax dollars to fund pervasively religious organizations, allowing religious discrimination in hiring for federally funded projects, ... Legal strategies and actions from groups like the Alliance Defense Fund and ACLJ are now official DOJ policy, it appears. ...In his statement, Gonzales mentioned several cases litigated by ADF and its allies ...

知己知彼,百戰不貽

Abiezer — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 06:11:56 -0800

Why hawks win. How identified predictable errors of judgement favour hawkish policy decisions. Via. Previously.

Still, neither Nixon nor Reagan changed the division's procedures for hiring career staff

amberglow — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:53:17 -0800

"If anything, a civil rights background is considered a liability." Meet the politically-appointed career staffers of the Justice Dept.'s Civil Rights Division: ... the kinds of cases the Civil Rights Division is bringing have undergone a shift. The division is bringing fewer voting rights and employment cases involving systematic discrimination against African-Americans, and more alleging reverse discrimination against whites and religious discrimination against Christians. ... Thorough Boston Globe article on how the administration disbanded the hiring committee in 2002 to appoint lawyers with a very different vision of what civil rights are, and the ensuring and ongoing results.

A hate crime in Harlem?

anjamu — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 11:50:25 -0800

A hate crime in Harlem? Some say it is, some say it isn't. Some are reminded of an incident at Howard Beach in 1986.

ragnarok now? or is it all just in your head?

all-seeing eye dog — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 09:46:51 -0800

Why do we always seem to expect the worst from some people? By now, it's common knowledge that media reports of widespread looting, violence and sexual assault in the wake of Katrina's strike on New Orleans were grossly exaggerated, but why? Some might attribute such distortions to unconscious bias, offering up some hope of alleviating racial tension by bringing unexamined racial biases to light; still others see the problem of racial tension as an intractable one, leading inevitably to an all-out clash of cultures--even finding "evidence" of the inevitably of such a conflict in the unlikeliest of places. Still others seem especially eager to bring all these tensions to a head. What's really going on these days? Is racial tension ultimately a political problem or, as some suggest, a psychological one?

Photographers respond to New Orleans racial bias photos

Brian James — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 21:42:24 -0800

Looting vs Finding Chris Graythen, an AFP photographer in New Orleans (skip down to his post) who shot the photo of two white people "finding" goods in the floodwaters, defends his caption. "These people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics. They picked up bread and cokes that were floating in the water." Meanwhile, the editor for the photog of the "looting" image says that he actually saw the looting occur. "'He saw the person go into the shop and take the goods,' Stokes said, 'and that's why he wrote 'looting' in the caption.'"

somos indios?

dhruva — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 21:21:36 -0800

El Indio in Hispanic proverbial speech "The proverbial speech of Hispanic America preserves, even today, numerous traces of the interaction between explorers, conquerors, or settlers and the native populations they found in the various regions of the so-called New World"

Cognitive biases and other fun tricks

blahblahblah — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 18:13:39 -0800

You are very bad at making decisions. Welcome to the world of cognitive biases. They are why it is so easy to see conspiracies in the death of microbiologists, to be unaware of how incompetent we are, to regret our bids on eBay, and to be superstitious rationalists. Perhaps you should learn to use them before you are taken in. Finally, cognitive biases are why you will remember the end of this po

Yes, you are biased.

blahblahblah — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 19:49:33 -0800

Who do you unconciously hate? The Harvard University implicit bias tests allow you to discover your own implicit stereotypes: age, gender, religion, race -- even politics and presidents. Each test takes about ten minutes, and the results are sometimes surprising. Perhaps announcing your biases should this be the equivalent of the geek code for policy threads.

State of the Media

psmealey — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 07:01:07 -0800

Project for Excellence in Journalism Report NYT: The annual Project for Excellence in Journalism report on the state of the media says that the use of anonymous sources in newspapers has dropped significantly over the last year. USAT: Non-traditional media gaining ground, consumers. LAT: Study warns of "junk news" diet. E&P: Survey finds newspapers slipping, facing cutbacks. WaPo: Study finds no shortage of opinion on Fox News.

ConservativeAlgorithm

srboisvert — Fri, 24 Sep 2004 04:17:06 -0800

Google News Bias. How second tier websites are gaming the Google News Enging.

Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course it does.

pardonyou? — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 08:43:42 -0800

Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper? Of course it is. By Daniel Okrent, New York Times ~~Ombudsman~~ Public Editor. (reg. req'd)

Unger chews Isikoff a new one

troutfishing — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 05:39:29 -0800

The Newsweek-Fahrenheit wars - Michael Isikoff's "seven errors, distortions and selective omissions of crucial information" detailed by Craig Unger, "House of Bush, House of Saud" author (read excerpts of his book at Salon.com, for members or by a "day pass") Isikoff has heavily cited Unger's book but, it seems, not bothered to read Unger's generously provided source files. "Liberal" PBS is not excluded, as credulous (or ignorant) "On the Media" host Bob Garfield's July 2 interview with Isikoff demonstrates. What shall we call such pervasive, ongoing and seemingly willful patterns of inaccuracy, distortion, and selective omission?

Toxic livers vs. toxic minds

Space Coyote — Wed, 12 May 2004 22:34:52 -0800

Reading With the Enemy - "Inspired by Supersize Me: What if you spent one month reading, listening to, and watching only right-wing media. No New York Times, no NPR, no network news, no CNN, no lefty blogs, no liberal novels. Nothing left-wing or centrist, and nothing ‘objective.’ Nothing that makes up the world you currently inhabit."