So, what is your opinion on the politcal spins put forth in/on these boards? Are we seeing a true Fair and Balanced look at things, especially those of a political nature?
My spin would be:
It’s Liberal-ville around here. The Conservatives that speak up are out numbered quickly. There is much back patting from all Liberals to each other, and in numbers lies strength. I believe the master himself has hinted at his liberalism.
Opinions…as I’m not doing a debate. They go nowhere fast.
Please.
You’d still get shredded pretty quickly if you started lofting up liberal-perspective assertions without support and cited references. Our conservatives may not constitute the majority around here but our board has a pretty formidable collection of conservatives who are neither stupid nor mindlessly knee-jerk. I may not agree with them but I would not advise understimating them. Sam Stone, Scylla, SenorBeef, december, Airman Doors, monty, etc… I may not agree with them terribly often but I respect them and they add balance to the board, politically, while contributing to an environment in which people of any political persuasion who can’t do their own thinking and expect to win arguments via stridency alone are given short shrift.
I think of it as Chagrined and Bewildered.
Considering that “Fair and Balanced” is the phrase that Fox News uses to describe its own right-wing slant, I’d say we’re at least as fair and balanced as they are.
Assuming no bias from the moderators, and assuming an equal distribution of posters along the political spectrum, then I think – at least from a mathematics perspective – that the SDMB is pretty fair and balanced overall. Anyone is free to discuss their perspectives, with the only requirement being that they back up their assertion instead of making wild-ass claims.
In my experience, people who complain the most about bias on computer forums are either
[ul]
li on a forum that deliberately encourages a biased community (Free Republic, Democratic Underground), or[/li]li simply have views that are rather extreme, and the “bias” they see is simply the rest of the world disagreeing with them[/li][/ul]
And considering the worldwide nature of the SDMB community, plus the fact that American politics is already skewed rather right relative to the rest of the planet, it’s not hard to imagine how American conservative Dopers might see the rest of the board as “liberal-ville.” :rolleyes:
I think it is quite difficult to imagine exactly what we mean by ‘fair and balanced’ - should every possible opinion be represented?
Even seeking what appears to be the middle ground could be wrong, if in fact the truth lies closer to one of the extremes (Jim says 2+2 is 4, Joe says it is 5 and Jack says it is 6 - Siding with joe just because he occupies the middle ground is the wrong thing to do).
All I can say is that I haven’t come across a lot of evidence to suggest that people are generally treated unfairly - the same set of rules applies to all of us and we’re made aware of them when we sign up - if Polycarp started flinging around racial slurs, or repeatedly spammed the boards with news of his wonderful-get-rich-quick-pyramid-scheme, he’d be in the same kind of trouble as dumbnewbie98743321 doing the same.
OK, he’s a little more likely to get away with something small and out of character, but that is because we have the benefit of knowing him a little; if a friend slaps my face, I’ll be offended, but I’m inclined to ask why and work through the issue in order to preserve the friendship; if a stranger in the street does the same, I might just hit back, run away or call the police - am I being unfair to the stranger?
I don’t come here looking for “fair and balanced.” But it seems to be predominately U.S. folks. I like to hear from other parts of the world.
I think this board is as fair and balanced as you’re ever going to get.
Think about it - all you need to join is a valid email address and to agree to the terms and conditions. After that, you’re free to express any views you want and engage in debate with intelligent and witty people from around the world (for the most part).
My point is that anyone with access to a computer and the internet is free to express their views here, and as long as they back up their arguments and refrain from being jerks, their opinions will be respected, regardless of whether or not anyone actually agrees with them.
If anyone feels that the Liberals on this board outnumber the conservatives, then i think that’s just down to sheer dumb luck - nothing is stopping more conservatives from joining.
There are more liberals per capita, but the conservatives are more strident and methodical about getting their message out there.
Just like America!
I don’t think the board is “fair and balanced” as far as individual opinions go - often posters will not attempt to maintain the impartiality that could be achieved. However, as a whole, the board tends to balance due to the diversity of opinion.
I don’t think the board is particularly liberal, whether from a worldwide or a US perspective. However, this varies according to the issue.
I find that on economic issues, due to the strong U.S. contingent the board tends to slant slightly to the right, and similarly due to the more intelligent slant of the board (see, I’m not being balanced, though perhaps fair) the board may lean slightly to the left on social issues: we tend not to have many members advocating positions usually associated with the U.S’ religious right.
I guess then that if the board has any slant, it is slightly toward the libertarian, though the eponymous poster may strongly disagree with me.
Ah, so it’s liberals who are the true “silent majority”.
:dubious:[sup] -Yeah, you just keep thinking that…[/sup]
MHO: Conservatives might be more strident, but that’s only due to the increased likelyhood of being shouted down.
Just like America! 
If there’s one thing conservatives abhor & despise about the left, it’s the elitist attitudes. And it’s possible that there are conservative potential-Dopers who observe the self-declared intellectual high-ground claimed by resident liberal Dopers (viz, gex gex) and decide not to enjoin the fight. Better, they might reason, to find a place where elitism isn’t so firmly entrenched.
Does anyone else feel like me that “Fair and Ballanced” are mutually exclusive. For something to be ballanced it requires action to ensure the ballance, this action in whatever form it takes will be seen as unfair to some maybe many. This board is about as “Fair and Ballanced” as possible, since the majority of posters are silent, and I believe the quality of an argument is prised here far above unsubstantiated pollitical rhetoric of either left or right. It allows us to have valuable posters like december, libertarian, polycarp, gex gex , and many others with very different views all contributing.
Tygr - I was hoping that my admittedly non-balanced point about intelligence and liberal social opinion wasn’t motivated by what you and other conservatives call the “self-declared intellectual high-ground claimed by the left” (although I’ve never really understood this - why are rich educated conservatives never branded “elites”?).
I was trying to make the point that both liberals and conservatives alike on this board tend to be more tolerant to other sexualities, races and cultures than the general population does. While these values are not alien to conservatives (and unfortunately, not universally held amongst liberals) opponents to these views traditonally reside in the right-wing side of politics. There doesn’t need to be a group of Log Cabin Democrats, for instance.
I assume this tolerance is the result of higher intelligence, both in the conservatives and the liberals. This doesn’t mean, of course, that everyone intelligent is not prejudiced, or that everyone not so intelligent is prejudiced.
It seems to me that there is a higher proporiton of nontheists here than the general population as well
I’ve learned more from the Left Side since arriving here.
I’ve learned more about the Right Side since arriving here.
I’ve learned more about the Way Out There Side since arriving here.
I still prefer the Far Side.
Yeah, we are fair and balanced in an odd sort of way.
I don’t see any dominant political bend to the board at all. There is a slight tendency towards American-centric opinions and a polarization of debate around the American political viwepoints, which is hardly surprising, but it’s generally a wide open field.
hhmm… the short time I am here I would say that the so called Liberals are a bit bigger in number and way bigger in quality. Havent seen that many good Bushites debators.
Since "Fair and Balanced"™ is Fox Bull Shit I wont offend board members by comparing them to Fox.
I think that’s funny, because when I came to this board I thought the exact opposite – although there were clearly liberal members, this board seemed to be pretty conservative. I think the reason is that in real life people tend to surround themselves with people who have similar backgrounds and beliefs, and thus get a false view of where the true mean is. While the average Doper may be slightly more liberal than the average American, I think the board is generally pretty close to center. The fact that it looks liberal to you and conservative to me is a measure of how far from center we ourselves are.
The question of whether the board is “fair and balanced” is a slightly different one. I don’t think it is, and I don’t think it should be. The media needs to be fair and objective in order to accurately report the news. Citizens have no such obligation – if the majority of the populace has a certain viewpoint, then that is consensus, not bias.
Why, because they already have their own luridly pejorative term, a favorite of the left: evil
Yes, and because of this, opposition to policies affecting these ‘others’ is branded as intolerance. Even here.
Again, that may be why conservatives find themselves drowned out here - we don’t have the rhetoric ammunition. A conservative position that is well-thought out and intensely rationalized will still be met with shouts of “INTOLERANCE!” and “JUDGEMENTAL!” Which leaves us twisting in the wind, ignored when we try to enumerate the minutiae that led us to adopt the position. Once the invectives fly, there follows the inevitable pile-on and rationality just melts away.
I may not be clear about the closing paragraph in your post. To me, you’re saying that tolerance goes hand-in-hand with higher intelligence, as though intelligence is a pre-requisite to open-mindedness (which, I submit, appears to be the pinnacle of character development among the left, a notion I disagree with). There’s plenty of evidence that this is not the case - observe much of the behavior of Hollywood liberals as one such display.
When the topic is strictly political, the majority of posters seem to come from the left side of the playing field. I’ve seen many anti-Bush threads, for example, with posters piling on with glee. I don’t see nearly the same number of pro-Bush or pro-Iraq war threads. This indicates to me that the majority of people who are willing to start political threads are probably liberal…as are those who respond to and perpetuate them. I am mostly conservative with a streak of social libertarianism. I generally think that the further left a person is, the more naive and unrealistic they are. And yes, it’s possible to be too far right as well. But what amuses me is that Socialists are absolutely certain that thier ideas will work. I suppose the economic and social debacle of the Soviet Union was just an anomoly.