We've written a number of times about the ideological divide at BYU. Generally perceived as a conservative school, like other institutions, BYU has a largely liberal professoriate. We think this is due, in part, to what happens to these professors when they go to grad school. Most of the dominant theories and professors in most of the graduate disciplines--certainly the humanities and social sciences--are liberal ones. This is especially true in any discipline where political ideology can possibly have any influence: engineering, business, hard sciences pretty much don't count here.
At BYU, the generally conservative student population (the political faith of their fathers) runs into their liberal professors. No one is giving bad grades for being conservative. And we haven't heard of any anti-Republican/business/Bush rants. But we have personally witnessed, for example, a debate about gender and the role of "social constructs" in defining gender identity. Certainly the science is not settled, but this was a history class and the popular side, the one promoted by the professor, was the one that said that social constructs define gender identity, not any inborn or innate or inherent sense. Those who argued for social constructs=gender identity were the ones "in the know." They adopted the typical liberal posture of, "if you knew better, you'd agree with us."
We don't want to get sidetracked by the substance of the debate, it's only an example. The point is that BYU is like every other university in the country in the sense that liberal professors wield great power in influencing the politics of their students. There may be 10% fewer registered Democrats (thought we doubt it) and they may be less strident than Ward Churchill, but they affect students just the same.
This was brought home to us this weekend in conversation with one of our friends, a broadcast journalism major. We had spoken before about internships and post-grad job prospects, so we knew about her anti-Fox News bias. We mentioned to her that Drudge had recently listed that Fox News programming had double the viewers of its next closest cable news competitor. This surprised her.
We've asked her before about her dislike of Fox News and she really wasn't able to give us a good answer. It had something to do with the fact that they (her journalism school) didn't like Fox News because they're biased or something and everyone else is, what? Giving us 'just the facts, please, ma'am?' Right.
There's just a kind of attitude towards non-liberal ideas, attitudes and institutions that infects higher education and if you want to get along and be accepted, you have to fall in line.
Sometimes these attitudes infect without the student even knowing it. We've seen this happen with our friends in grad schools (the ones who didn't go to MBA school). Without them even knowing (because they aren't taught as such), they learn to believe in all the -isms of the day: nihilism, relativism, utilitarianism, feminism, multiculturalism, postmodernism, whatever. Our grad school experience at UCL and seminars at Cambridge and Queen Mary was slightly different to the experience of American students. Because they were British institutions, their politics don't divide sharply down party lines. Of course there were more and less acceptable points of view--on Iraq, for example--but we felt our UCL professors were less (if you can believe it) ideological than many of our BYU professors. And certainly less ideological and postmodern than many of the professors teaching our friends in grad school.
This strange difference may have been a product of the fact that BYU professors know about public perception of their school (religious, conservative) and feel like they have to veer hard to the left in order to be accepted when they go to conferences. Again, this isn't true of everyone, but it's certainly true of many.
Back to BYU's J-school. Most editorial pages of most newspapers around the country have a consistent ideology. The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the NYT, Washington Post, USA Today, and LA Times are liberal. The same is not true of BYU's student newspaper, the Daily Universe. There is no coherent and consistent ideology. This is, of course, a result of the fact that the editorial board changes every semester. Different students + different backgrounds + different politics = constantly changing editorial ideology. Fine. But it is here that we see this tension between largely conservative students in a liberal dominated field (according to polls we saw back in 2004, 70% of journalists voted for John Kerry. Journalists do not mirror America.). Young BYU students, ready to liberate themselves from their parents, try out the new ideas they learn in their intro to comms classes. Thus, their reporting and opinion writing is a grab bag of conservative background, liberal journalistic training, and frosh and soph grammar and writing. Point being, sure, the DU often seems juvenile or poorly written, but we shouldn't hold it to an unfair standard.
The most invidious biases are the ones people harbor but about which they are unaware. That journalists in America and professors in higher education (and at BYU specifically) prefer Democrats is not the problem. Problems arise when the echo chambers they inhabit begin to make them think that their biases are the way the world is, rather than just one perspective.
This is the theme that unites our examples: our history class discussion of social constructs and gender, and our friend's J-School taught opinion of Fox News. They don't see the opposing view in terms of differing opinions, they see it in terms of right and wrong, smart and stupid, progressive and antiquated, enlightened and ignorant, educated and, well, uneducated.
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label Daily Universe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Universe. Show all posts
31 March 2008
26 March 2008
BYU, Utah State Caucuses, Iraq, &c.
Over the course of our reports on the BYUSA election and the ongoing debate about the Provo parking issues, we have called for a more unified voice to represent student concerns with the Provo City Council (here, here, here, here, here, here, & here). A report by Emily Hudson in the Daily Universe shows we are not the only ones who recognize the representation deficit.
Hudson reports that the 33,000 BYU students make up roughly 29% of the Provo population. And yet, "in Saturday's downtown meeting, where BYU was not represented, almost all of the discussion of urban variety centered around increasing student activity in the downtown area, student housing issues and transportation. (emphasis added)
How can this be possible?
***
Last night we watched some associate editor from US News on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We were shocked to learn that news reports (according to the aforementioned editor) on Iraq only totaled 4% of all news time in the month of February.
With violence down, we really shouldn't be surprised, but we were. Fortunately, some reporters have continued to do good work in Iraq--specifically, Michael J. Totten, whom we've cited before. Totten's report on Marine efforts in Karmah, a town in the Anbar province, is his latest and is very good (caution: expletives in link). From that report:
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
Hudson reports that the 33,000 BYU students make up roughly 29% of the Provo population. And yet, "in Saturday's downtown meeting, where BYU was not represented, almost all of the discussion of urban variety centered around increasing student activity in the downtown area, student housing issues and transportation. (emphasis added)
How can this be possible?
***
Yesterday Utah held caucus meetings for both Republican and Democrats. This article from the Daily U focuses on the Democrat caucus. In it, Holly Van Woerkom reported that Don Jarvis, Democratic candidate for the Utah State House from district 63, said that the BYU Democrats were "the largest student Democrat club in the state."
That's not saying much.
Meanwhile, friend of Lybberty, Matt Berry, attended the local Republican caucus and was elected as one of the delegates to the Republican State Convention. Berry reported that there were "a lot fewer crazies than I expected" and that the discussion was "smart and passionate." He said they focused on vouchers/school choice and immigration, among other things.
That's not saying much.
Meanwhile, friend of Lybberty, Matt Berry, attended the local Republican caucus and was elected as one of the delegates to the Republican State Convention. Berry reported that there were "a lot fewer crazies than I expected" and that the discussion was "smart and passionate." He said they focused on vouchers/school choice and immigration, among other things.
***
Follow up to last week's review of the DU's editorial on Obama's speech. Letter-to-the-editor writer, Max Stoneman called the DU's editorial on Obama's Wright speech a new low (2nd from the top). You'll remember that this was the column with which we agreed and thought was well-written.
Specifically, he said " The DU is also extremely wrong-headed to assume that Obama used the speech to say 'we're all racist in some ways.'" Did Stoneman miss Obama's comment about his grandmother being a "typical white person?" This was a revealing offhand comment that further strengthens the DU's suspicions about Obama's worldview.
To Stoneman: drink less kool-aid.
Specifically, he said " The DU is also extremely wrong-headed to assume that Obama used the speech to say 'we're all racist in some ways.'" Did Stoneman miss Obama's comment about his grandmother being a "typical white person?" This was a revealing offhand comment that further strengthens the DU's suspicions about Obama's worldview.
To Stoneman: drink less kool-aid.
***
Since we still rely on blogger for all things technical, we don't know why the text spacing changes after we use one of the special features like "centering" or "block quote." If any of you know how to fix this, please email us.
Since we still rely on blogger for all things technical, we don't know why the text spacing changes after we use one of the special features like "centering" or "block quote." If any of you know how to fix this, please email us.
***
This week marks the kickoff to the BYU student sponsored "Choose to Give" campaign. Check out Russell Thacker's piece in the DU appealing to students for their support. We, collectively, have benefited greatly from our attendance at BYU. We recommend you do as the class of 1911 student suggested and "refrain this week from indulging in any evening entertainments that will require an outlay of money."
Small donations from a large percentage of the BYU student population can go a long way to growing student scholarships and expanding programs--like the math lab--that help a lot of students.
***
Small donations from a large percentage of the BYU student population can go a long way to growing student scholarships and expanding programs--like the math lab--that help a lot of students.
***
With violence down, we really shouldn't be surprised, but we were. Fortunately, some reporters have continued to do good work in Iraq--specifically, Michael J. Totten, whom we've cited before. Totten's report on Marine efforts in Karmah, a town in the Anbar province, is his latest and is very good (caution: expletives in link). From that report:
Implementing basic security measures wouldn't work in a counterinsurgency if a significant number of local civilians supported the radicals. But the locals were terrified and savagely murdered and tortured by the radicals on a regular basis. Al Qaeda in Iraq is the self-declared enemy of every human being outside its own members and loyal supporters. Nothing could possibly discredit jihad more completely than the jihadists themselves.Totten is an independent reporter and depends on donations to support himself and his work. Click the Paypal link at the bottom of his page and pitch in. For or against, we owe it to our soldiers to stay informed about the war and what they are doing.
“Insurgent activity was a lot worse,” Sergeant Howell said. “Attacks with small arms fire were constant. IEDs were daily. The difference between this place now and when I first got here is day and night. There was no way kids would be playing soccer in the streets. When we patrolled last time we had a much more aggressive posture. It was a combat patrol.”
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
19 March 2008
BYU Daily Universe Review
[Our brother doubles as our editor and sounding board. If there are typos, and there always are, it's because he hasn't yet read what we wrote and let us know of the error. We can't be bothered to read what we've written once we're done with it.]
With no new issue of BYU Political Review to dissect (Mr. Decker, get to work), we're left with the Daily Universe.
Another kerfuffle at BYU over the editors' decision not to print recent Dilbert comic strips that invoked the name of Jesus Christ. In a recent column, the editorial page responded to criticisms of their decision by saying that "the unrestrained flow of information (even with something as non-consequential as a cartoon) is not our highest aim at The Daily Universe."
Fair enough. We won't quibble with their decision. But we do have one question: what, exactly, does this, their concluding paragraph mean?
It strikes us as a just whole lot of words designed to make the writer appear to be an intelligent sophisticate--you know, so they can be like adult journalists. Remember, we're not arguing that these writers agree with us politically. At this point, we'd be satisfied with an editorial that makes sense.
With no new issue of BYU Political Review to dissect (Mr. Decker, get to work), we're left with the Daily Universe.
Another kerfuffle at BYU over the editors' decision not to print recent Dilbert comic strips that invoked the name of Jesus Christ. In a recent column, the editorial page responded to criticisms of their decision by saying that "the unrestrained flow of information (even with something as non-consequential as a cartoon) is not our highest aim at The Daily Universe."
Fair enough. We won't quibble with their decision. But we do have one question: what, exactly, does this, their concluding paragraph mean?
The unrestrained flow of information cannot be the ultimate good for a news organization. It is a marvelous good and a good for which we will always fight, but a good that cannot be made sovereign. Something isn't good because it is free. It is good because of the ideals for which it stands. Necessarily, something must be free in order to ultimately be good, but its own liberality does not make it good. For this reason newspapers fight against outside restrictions. But freedom from outside restrictions does not absolve media outlets of their own standards and responsibilities.We don't pretend to be the smartest blogger on the internet, but we think that we are smart enough to be able to understand the writing in a university editorial. Frankly, we have no idea what this paragraph is trying to say. It reads like Miss South Carolina's response to why U.S. Americans can't find the United States on a world map.
It strikes us as a just whole lot of words designed to make the writer appear to be an intelligent sophisticate--you know, so they can be like adult journalists. Remember, we're not arguing that these writers agree with us politically. At this point, we'd be satisfied with an editorial that makes sense.
***
Frequently the Daily Universe runs syndicated opinions written in other college newspapers. Judging by the op-ed we cited above, they should do this more often. On Monday, the DU ran a piece by Raja Karthikeya, a contributor to Georgetown's The Hoya. Writing about Kosovo's recent declaration of independence, Karthikeya said,
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
Frequently the Daily Universe runs syndicated opinions written in other college newspapers. Judging by the op-ed we cited above, they should do this more often. On Monday, the DU ran a piece by Raja Karthikeya, a contributor to Georgetown's The Hoya. Writing about Kosovo's recent declaration of independence, Karthikeya said,
Condoning the independence of Kosovo is the worst mistake the international community has made in recent years in Europe. Kosovo is not a simple case of self-determinism of its people: It is about setting a precedent of secession that undermines the integrity of pluralistic nations everywhere.Broadly, we support other people's in their struggle for independence from tyrannical domination. And with just a cursory look at the situation in Kosovo, we supported their split. We're not ready to back away form that position, but Karthikeya's column does raise some important points to consider.
***
Finally, today's op-ed on on Obama's exculpatory Wright-speech.
After the non-sense of the first column, the DU's editors redeemed themselves with a strong editorial about Obama's missed opportunity. In particular, these paragraphs echo the questions we have about Obama's association with Wright and the questions that association raises about his judgment:
We were most bothered by the moral equivalence reflected in Obama's comparison of Rev. Wright to his (Obama's) poor grandmother. Does anyone really believe that the private prejudice of Barack's grandmother is on par with the hateful, divisive, racist, conspiracy theories of Jeremiah Wright? Give us a break.
Saying that Wright's position is OK or understandable is just another example of what one of our favorite writers--One Cosmos--calls "the soft bigotry of low or no expectations for blacks."
(article link)
As much as anything else, Obama's speech showed that he is just repackaging and rebranding the same old liberal drivel.
After the non-sense of the first column, the DU's editors redeemed themselves with a strong editorial about Obama's missed opportunity. In particular, these paragraphs echo the questions we have about Obama's association with Wright and the questions that association raises about his judgment:
The worry with Wright's comments never was that they directly represented Obama's personal views. It was Obama's judgment. How could a man who's been campaigning on sound judgment in the absence of experience, choose Wright as his family's spiritual adviser?(emphasis added)
Obama's best chance for success Tuesday would have been to condemn Wright's comments and then say he was gravely mistaken to have chosen him as his family's spiritual adviser. Instead, he continued to sell Wright off as the crazy uncle whom he loves, disagrees with, but [who] still makes a good point - despite all his hate and anger.
We were most bothered by the moral equivalence reflected in Obama's comparison of Rev. Wright to his (Obama's) poor grandmother. Does anyone really believe that the private prejudice of Barack's grandmother is on par with the hateful, divisive, racist, conspiracy theories of Jeremiah Wright? Give us a break.
Saying that Wright's position is OK or understandable is just another example of what one of our favorite writers--One Cosmos--calls "the soft bigotry of low or no expectations for blacks."
(article link)
As much as anything else, Obama's speech showed that he is just repackaging and rebranding the same old liberal drivel.
10 March 2008
BYUSA Election Final
As we wrote yesterday, Adam Ruri and Chance Basinger won the recent BYUSA election. According to this article from the Daily Universe, voter turnout (read: logging on to Route Y and clicking a box) for this election was the highest ever.
Winning with 54% of the votes (3327), according to our sister, Adam and Chance (click here to see their website) won at least in part because they didn't harass students the way some of the other candidates did: "who are you going to vote for? huh? huh? vote for me!"
Our goal for this campaign (which we wrote in our original post about this election) was simply that the election end with a voter-decided election and not as many recent ones have--with one candidate dropping out because of rules or Honor Code violations.
Mission accomplished. And, again, congratulations to Adam and Chance, you're popular.
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
29 February 2008
BYUSA Elections
It's that time of year again. Time for the BYUSA student elections for President and Executive(?) Vice President. We've written about this annual train wreck before here and here. In microcosm, BYUSA's strict campaign rules are an example of what happens when speech is limited by rules no one understands.
Only, they can't blame John McCain.
The first BYUSA election we can remember was significant because one of the guys looked like Robert Downey Jr. When it's a show election for a show office, might as well have a face primed for showtime.
After that, we remember another BYUSA President who was the funny fat guy. Everybody loves that guy.
This year's election theme seems to be brother/sister teams. Check out the candidates and their platforms here:
As it is, Steele and Amanda misspell "initiaition" [sic] and Paul and Brooke's flash slideshow resulted in this really weird transgender morphing action. Initiation? Come on, guys. And Paul, buddy, you're scaring the kids.
Alright, we're equal opportunity grammar/spelling police: McKell Myers was "Chairmen [sic] of the Teenage Republican Club for Comal County." Brandon Roman is an "extravert" and a political science major. Meanwhile, Adam Ruri was a "male vocalist in a band." (emphasis added) Yup. We sort through the inanities of this campaign so you don't have to.
Click here and here for the Daily Universe's usual hard-hitting journalism.
We have modest goals for this election: an election-decided winner. This would be a departure from the winner-by-default outcome of the last few years.
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
Only, they can't blame John McCain.
The first BYUSA election we can remember was significant because one of the guys looked like Robert Downey Jr. When it's a show election for a show office, might as well have a face primed for showtime.
After that, we remember another BYUSA President who was the funny fat guy. Everybody loves that guy.
This year's election theme seems to be brother/sister teams. Check out the candidates and their platforms here:
- Steele & Amanda Kizerian (bro & sis)
- Paul Hoybjerg & Brooke Stevens
- Chayse Myers & McKell Myers
- Brandon Roman & Chad Johnson
- Adam Ruri & Chance Basinger
As it is, Steele and Amanda misspell "initiaition" [sic] and Paul and Brooke's flash slideshow resulted in this really weird transgender morphing action. Initiation? Come on, guys. And Paul, buddy, you're scaring the kids.
Alright, we're equal opportunity grammar/spelling police: McKell Myers was "Chairmen [sic] of the Teenage Republican Club for Comal County." Brandon Roman is an "extravert" and a political science major. Meanwhile, Adam Ruri was a "male vocalist in a band." (emphasis added) Yup. We sort through the inanities of this campaign so you don't have to.
Click here and here for the Daily Universe's usual hard-hitting journalism.
We have modest goals for this election: an election-decided winner. This would be a departure from the winner-by-default outcome of the last few years.
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
12 January 2008
How we got here
With our Seahawks down big, we figured we'd focus our energy elsewhere. Back to the blog.
Earlier this week we posted that we had been included in a blog competition. Starting this week, our blog will be evaluated by a panel of judges through the first week of April. We've told a number of our friends about this honor and they've been universally perplexed about how were fortunate enough to be considered.
Just before Christmas break, while working on an essay for one of our grad seminars, we were surfing the infernet and happened to come across the America's Future website. On the website we discovered a blog competition and decided to give it a try. Among other things, the application asked us to submit our 3 best posts. The first two were obvious--we felt passionately about the topic and they invited passionate response. But the last one took a little bit of thought.
To give it a little context, we'll post links to those posts here so you can evaluate for yourself whether or not our writing merited consideration.
The first post we submitted was one written in Feburary 2006. At the time, many BYU students, including many of our friends, got caught up in a ponzi scheme called 12daily Pro.
In March 2006, BYUSA (the BYU student leadership/representative organization) concluded something like their 4th consecutive election with a winner by default. A well-meaning BYUSA employee wrote to the student newspaper, the Daily Universe, regarding a few changes that could be made to avoid similar problems in the future, and was subsequently terminated. This prompted another post.
Our third submission should have been 2 or 3 for one. First, consider one long-running theme of this blog: our love of Senator Joe Lieberman. We disagree with most of his politics, but have long admired his unpopular support of the War on Terror. In the midst of a primary fight against the Angry-Left candidate, Ned Lamont, we blogged in support of Lieberman.
Posted on this blog and in the BYU political publication, BYU Political Review, in October 2006, we blogged in favor of voting Republican even when it was clear the tide was turning in favor of the Democrats. Follow-up: The Dems were all-talk and never did follow through on their threat to pull out of Iraq. And The Surge? It worked. General Petraeus? Your Man Of The Year.
Finally, in July 2007, we channelled our inner Peggy Noonan (style, not quality) and wrote about being an American grad student in London. This one was picked up by our hometown paper, the Tri-City Herald.
Tell your friends and family. Link to us in your blog. And visit OL&L early and often. The competition is stiff and we'll need all the help we can get. Thank you, dear reader, for your continued support.
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
Earlier this week we posted that we had been included in a blog competition. Starting this week, our blog will be evaluated by a panel of judges through the first week of April. We've told a number of our friends about this honor and they've been universally perplexed about how were fortunate enough to be considered.
Just before Christmas break, while working on an essay for one of our grad seminars, we were surfing the infernet and happened to come across the America's Future website. On the website we discovered a blog competition and decided to give it a try. Among other things, the application asked us to submit our 3 best posts. The first two were obvious--we felt passionately about the topic and they invited passionate response. But the last one took a little bit of thought.
To give it a little context, we'll post links to those posts here so you can evaluate for yourself whether or not our writing merited consideration.
The first post we submitted was one written in Feburary 2006. At the time, many BYU students, including many of our friends, got caught up in a ponzi scheme called 12daily Pro.
In March 2006, BYUSA (the BYU student leadership/representative organization) concluded something like their 4th consecutive election with a winner by default. A well-meaning BYUSA employee wrote to the student newspaper, the Daily Universe, regarding a few changes that could be made to avoid similar problems in the future, and was subsequently terminated. This prompted another post.
Our third submission should have been 2 or 3 for one. First, consider one long-running theme of this blog: our love of Senator Joe Lieberman. We disagree with most of his politics, but have long admired his unpopular support of the War on Terror. In the midst of a primary fight against the Angry-Left candidate, Ned Lamont, we blogged in support of Lieberman.
Posted on this blog and in the BYU political publication, BYU Political Review, in October 2006, we blogged in favor of voting Republican even when it was clear the tide was turning in favor of the Democrats. Follow-up: The Dems were all-talk and never did follow through on their threat to pull out of Iraq. And The Surge? It worked. General Petraeus? Your Man Of The Year.
Finally, in July 2007, we channelled our inner Peggy Noonan (style, not quality) and wrote about being an American grad student in London. This one was picked up by our hometown paper, the Tri-City Herald.
Tell your friends and family. Link to us in your blog. And visit OL&L early and often. The competition is stiff and we'll need all the help we can get. Thank you, dear reader, for your continued support.
If you have tips, questions, comments, suggestions, or requests for subscription only articles, email us at lybberty@gmail.com.
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