Some can't hide contempt for colleagues on the right

For certain enlightened liberals on university faculties, the lesser intellectual stature of Christians and conservatives is so much taken for granted that they do not hesitate to write about them in terms dripping with condescension and contempt.

An example I encountered this week is especially odious, and I am happy to bring it to the attention of a wider, non-academic audience. The authors are four political scientists at the University of Pittsburgh - Barry Ames, David Barker, Chris Bonneau and Christopher Carman. Their paper is a critique of a study, published earlier this year, examining the statistical evidence that not only Christians and conservatives but also women in higher education tend to teach at less prestigious institutions than their scholarly qualifications would suggest.

The original paper, "Politics and Professional Advancement Among College Faculty," was by Stanley Rothman, S. Robert Lichter and Neil Nevitte; it appeared in Vol. 3, No. 1 of an online journal called The Forum, published by the Berkeley Electronic Press. The critique, plus a response by the original authors, is in Vol. 3, No. 2. They're all at www.bepress.com/forum- tiresome but free registration required.

The critique authors, who titled their paper, "Hide the Republicans, the Christians, and the Women," refer to the first study by its authors' initials, RLN, and RLN return the favor by referring to the critique as ABBC. This is not a courtesy, but it is a convenience...

With their third point, they take aim at religion: "many conservatives may deliberately choose not to seek employment at top-tier research universities because they object, on philosophical grounds, to one of the fundamental tenets undergirding such institutions: the scientific method."

What a bunch of arrogant pr**ks. Members of the scientific community can be just as dogmatic as fundamentalist Christians, especially when it comes to the religion of global warming. Many scientists disregard basic tenets of the scientific method in order to preach adherence to Kyoto, while abandoning natural, cyclical theories as to why the climate has gotten slightly warmer recently - even though there have been several climatic cycles in recent geological history that were obviously not caused by human industrial activities.

But the liberals don't see their dogma as deviating from the scientific method, because their cause is just.

...I am happy to bring it to the attention of a wider, non-academic audience.

This is the type of material that should be published on the web as soon as it's found, and I'm happy that Seebach did just that.

What academic liberals put in print too often stays only in academic circles. Putting liberal papers outside the purview of academia alone opens those papers to review and criticism, by the general public. That's something that liberal academia has too often been cloistered from.

A student may be punished with a failing grade for criticism of a professor, but the general public is immune and should take advantage of what liberals write.

FACULTY

Barry Ames, PhD
Stanford University, 1972
Chair
Andrew W. Mellon Professor
of Comparative Politics

E-mail: barrya@pitt.edu

Curriculum Vitae

COURSES/SYLLABI

PS 1321 Latin American Politics
PS 2321 Graduate Field Seminar in Latin American Politics
PS 2381 Quantitative and Formal Analysis in Latin American Political Science
AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Comparative politics, Latin America, legislative behavior, electoral systems, political economy
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazil. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.

“Approaches to the Study of Institutions in Latin America” Latin American Research Review (Winter 1999) 34:1.

“The Politics of Environmental Policy Making in Brazil” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs (1997-1998) 39:4 (Co-authored with Margaret Keck).

“Electoral Strategy Under Open-List Proportional Representation” American Journal of Political Science (May 1995).

“Electoral Rules, Constituency Pressures, and Pork Barrel: Bases of Voting in the Brazilian Congress” Journal of Politics (May 1995) 57:2.

“The Reverse Coattails Effect: Local Party Organization in the 1989 Brazilian Presidential Election” American Political Science Review (March 1994).

Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America. Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1987.
OTHER FACULTY AND PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS

Core faculty member of the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) of the University Center for International Studies (UCIS).

Chair, Section on Political Institutions, Latin American Studies Association.

Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh

Latin American Politics at the University of Pittsburgh

Reminds of a very famous story in France circa 1880.

An old man and a young man are on a train. The old man is praying (Catholic with rosary). The young man starts to deride the old man saying:

"Such foolish superstitions you have! Science is the way of the future! Why do you engage in such nonsense as your foolish religion -- embrace Science!"

The wise old man did not respond, but handed the young hand man his business card, which read:

Louis Pasteur
Pasteur Institute
Paris France

At the time, Louis Pasteur was world reknown for his breakthroughs in Science. It was sort of like demeaning Einstein in a similar way (because of the fame Louis Pasteur had at the time)...

Rushed to Judgment
Talk Radio, Persuasion, and American Political Behavior

David Barker

"Rushed to Judgement is a landmark study of political talk radio. David Barker takes talk radio research to a new level of theoretical and empirical sophistication. This comprehensive work gives thorough coverage to existing research, and provides much new evidence about the audience, content, and influence of political talk. His findings and insights will stimulate readers to think anew about the implications of talk radio for democratic politics."
—Diana Owen

"[A] welcome addition to the growing shelf of scholarly works on radio broadcasting . . . well documented . . . offers useful research paths for others to follow."
—Christopher H. Sterling, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator

"[An] important and quite ground-breaking study of American conservative call-in talk radio."
—Bridget Griffin-Foley, Australasian Journal of American Studies

"the volume is useful not only for those who study media effects, but also for those who work in the area of political persuasion."
—David C. Barker, Public Opinion Quarterly

"David Barker's theoretically grounded, empirically based analysis explains how persuasion works for all the new, unabashedly biased media that are flourishing today. Methodologically, the experimental research that grounds the figures is imaginatively designed and beautifully executed. It provides a model for sophisticated modern political communication research."
—Doris A. Graber, University of Illinois, Chicago

Convenient, entertaining, and provocative, talk radio today is unapologetically ideological. Focusing on Rush Limbaugh—the medium's most influential talk show—Rushed to Judgment systematically examines the politics of persuasion at play on our nation's radio airwaves and asks a series of important questions. Does listening to talk radio change the way people think about politics, or are listeners' attitudes a function of the self-selecting nature of the audience? Does talk radio enhance understanding of public issues or serve as a breeding ground for misunderstanding? Can talk radio serve as an agent of deliberative democracy, spurring Americans to open, public debate? Or will talk radio only aggravate the divisive partisanship many Americans decry in poll after poll? The time is ripe to evaluate the effects of a medium whose influence has yet to be fully reckoned with.

Contents

1. Introduction : Political Persuasion, Propaganda, and Media Effects
2. Political Talk Radio and Its Most Prominent Practitioner
3. Toward a Value Heresthetic Model of Political Persuasion
4. Talk Radio, Public Opinion, and Vote Choice: The "Limbaugh Effect," 1994-96
5. Talk Radio, Opinion Leadership, and Presidential Nominations: Evidence from the 2 Republican Primary Battles
6. The Talk Radio Community: Nontraditional Social Networks and Political Participation
7. Information, Misinformation, and Political Talk Radio
8. Conclusion
Appendix A. The Limbaugh Message
Appendix B. Excerpts from the Rhetoric Stimulus
Appendix C. Excerpts from the Value Heresthetic Stimulus

About the Author

David Barker is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Prof. Barker has published several articles on talk radio in the Journal of Politics, Social Science Quarterly, and Political Communication.

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