NZC sees unconscious bias at NPR. The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Goldberg, in an article about Democrats who want to look tough, writes:
His run for the 1988 Democratic Presidential nomination came to a sudden end when he was accused of borrowing, without attribution, from a television commercial by the former British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. This embarrassment did no permanent harm to his standing in the Senate, and he has remained highly visible there.
I’m sure that’s what they say to the kid caught with a term paper ordered from a company advertising in the back of Rolling Stone (whoops, I’m dating myself) , er I mean, on the internet: “Don’t worry, son, this embarressment will do no permanent harm to your standing in school.”
Because, you know, it’s just borrowing with attribution, not, like, PLAGIARISM or anything.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure that these are examples of conscious bias, but whatever.
Since we’re already here, one other funny in Goldberg’s article:
Few of the most frequently mentioned contenders for the Party’s Presidential nomination in 2008—including Clinton, Bayh, Edwards, and Biden—belong to the Democratic Party’s left. Instead, the most likely would-be nominees are at pains to appear hawkish on defense. Hillary Clinton has been particularly skillful—not only on defense issues but also on such sensitive subjects as abortion rights. While she has been giving speeches in praise of the United Nations and multilateralism, she has been careful to assert the right of the United States to act without the support of allies when necessary.
Riiiiight. Dead Party Walking!
2 Comments
I thought I said I wasn’t sure if it was conscious or unconscious.
I think you said you weren’t sure if it was sloppy thinking or unconscious bias… but regardless, the point wasn’t to contradict you but that I’m less inclined to give these clowns the benefit of the doubt.