Ideological hack exposed (again)

Jeffrey Milyo is a right-wing hack!

Remember that "study" a few years ago that allegedly "proved" a liberal bias in the media? This report claimed Wall Street Journal and Drudge Report were liberal. Seriously, it said that. The report was compiled by UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose and University of Missouri economist Jeffrey Milyo.

The media slurped up this "study" - then kept reporting on it every few months as if it was new. Ironically, the fact that the media kept trotting out this manufactured story was itself proof the "study" was wrong! But the Conservative Fool Of The Day blog had a field week debunking the report and exposing both Milyo and Groseclose as right-wing partisan hatchet men who were working backwards from a conclusion that they had predetermined. It turned out Tim Groseclose was an Olin Faculty Fellow under the conservative John M. Olin Foundation, and Milyo was a Salvatori Fellow under the notoriously right-wing Heritage Foundation.

Their report claimed the media was liberal after comparing quotes reported in the media with the voting records of congressional lawmakers (during one of the most conservative Congresses ever). I guess anything is liberal compared to Congress at the time. Using Groseclose/Milyo "logic", you could have dug some old shingles out of a creek bed in the woods and said those were liberal.

Did the media stop relying on Jeffrey Milyo as a credible source? You gotta be kidding me, right?

Milyo remains a paid "researcher" of almost any cause associated with the Bush brand of conservatism. If there's a nutty position out there, he'll launch a bogus "study" of it and claim that this "proves" it's true. Milyo has said, "The role of advocate is, no matter what kind of information comes out, to sort of disparage it, and, you know, they're fighting for a result, not the truth. And they already think they know the truth." Milyo himself fights for results that are predetermined, not the truth.

It isn't just the privately owned media that places faith in this ideologue. It's also important government agencies like the FCC, which had Milyo do a report on media cross-ownership. A Republican operative with close ties to the Bush regime also commissioned Milyo to do a report to "prove" that restrictive new ID laws designed to disfranchise voters have no adverse effects (which is untrue).

What's worse is that the University of Missouri - a taxpayer-funded school - puts out press releases touting Milyo's "findings" as if they are incontrovertible truths (even though they can be debunked by any unbiased researcher).

Another Milyo meme is his absurd claim that any media coverage of the Iraq War is a Democratic issue, even if they only interview a Republican. Apparently it's because the issue hurts the GOP so much. Because of this, if a news outlet covers the war extensively, the outlet gets chalked up as having a liberal bias.

Milyo is a man with an agenda who still manages to get taken seriously. Want to read more detail about his record of partisan hackery? Find it here:

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5845