Twitter roundup

	Brendan Nyhan Oct 20, 2010 at 6:32pm From my Twitter feed (10/18-10/20)
	BrendanNyhan Oct 20, 2010 at 6:28pm The Fox-ification of MSNBC continues... RT @davidfrum very disturbing story about Rachel Maddow fact abuse http://bit.ly/9P21Pt
	Rachel Maddow at Most Shameless: Claims GOP Congressman 'Received Advance Notice' of Oklahoma City Bombing | NewsBusters.org
	BrendanNyhan Oct 20, 2010 at 12:37pm Good morning Clarence, it's Al. I would love you to consider an apology for why you did what you did with Bush v. Gore. OK, have a good day!
	BrendanNyhan Oct 20, 2010 at 1:37am File under "Talk, cheap": Palin Threatens Third Party http://j.mp/clAAW9
	Palin Threatens Third Party Taegan Goddard's Political Wire -- News, polls and buzz
	BrendanNyhan Oct 19, 2010 at 5:10pm New study - people whose beliefs were undermined "engaged in more advocacy of their beliefs" http://j.mp/b8cvC5 http://j.mp/bJcVcH (gated)
	BrendanNyhan Oct 19, 2010 at 1:03pm Interesting Barron's ad for "programmer-journalist intern" to work on "data analytic exposure of fraud" http://j.mp/9ksfQD
	The Society for Political Methodology - Detail
	BrendanNyhan Oct 19, 2010 at 12:08pm David Brooks cites political scientists in debunking hype over campaign money -- "no evidence" of "outsize role" http://j.mp/dxYXYI
	The New York Times > Log In
	BrendanNyhan Oct 18, 2010 at 8:16pm Mark McKinnon is hyping a planned 3rd party effort (via @davidfrum) http://bit.ly/d6hpDz Be skeptical http://j.mp/bXkbwG http://j.mp/a3lEhe
	Third Party: It’s Alive! | FrumForum In an exclusive interview with FrumForum, Republican strategist Mark McKinnon hinted that 2012 could see a serious third party presidential bid.
	Thomas Friedman's third party nonsense - Brendan Nyhan The dream of the independent third party presidential candidate shall never die -- at least in the columns of elite pundits like Thomas Friedman. In his latest effort, Friedman predicts "a serio...
	Third party hype 2005- - Brendan Nyhan The blog of Brendan Nyhan, political scientist and media critic.
	BrendanNyhan Oct 18, 2010 at 8:10pm I'll do @mattyglesias one better - both Conway ad *and* misleading, xenophobic China-bashing are deserving of outrage http://j.mp/b3JV0e
	Yglesias » Why The Fuss About Jack Conway?
	mattyglesias Oct 18, 2010 at 5:56pm No RT @Slate: New @jdickerson: Can Michelle's popularity rekindle the Obama 2008 magic for the midterms? http://slate.me/aRuEkJ
	In Ohio, Barack and Michelle Obama try to rally the faithful. - By John Dickerson - Slate Magazine COLUMBUS, Ohio—Two days before Election Day in 2008, Michelle Obama bragged about her husband to a crowd here of 60,000. "Barack has built one of the most powerful political organizations, recru...
	BrendanNyhan Oct 18, 2010 at 6:33pm More on how Ross Douthat appears to be misunderstanding the Tea Party's relationship to independents from @davidfrum: http://j.mp/9R3Lpc
	The Tea Party Minority | FrumForum While the tea party appeals strongly to conservative independents, these voters still won't be enough for a national political majority.
	BrendanNyhan Oct 18, 2010 at 4:26pm Backfire alert -- telling people that turnout is going to be low serves to further depress turnout http://j.mp/alGdad (via @thisbowers)
	Opinion: 'Low turnout' talk may make it true - Todd Rogers and Regina Schwartz - POLITICO.com Opinion: Research shows that stories on low participation may influence readers.
	BrendanNyhan Oct 18, 2010 at 2:16pm Two new studies of public opinion about comparative effectiveness/treatment guidelines http://j.mp/axWdP6 http://j.mp/9ZAm3N (both gated)
	A National Survey Reveals Public Skepticism About Research-Based Treatment Guidelines -- Gerber et al. 29 (10): 1882 -- Health Affairs
	The Public Wants Information, Not Board Mandates, From Comparative Effectiveness Research -- Gerber et al. 29 (10): 1872 -- Health Affairs
	BrendanNyhan Oct 18, 2010 at 2:11pm Agenda for UC Berkeley conference on the Tea Party this Friday http://j.mp/cg9Fp6
	Tea Party Conference | Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements

Comments

[Rob]

Anent Brendan's "Good morning Clarence" tweet, Virginia Thomas's voice mail message for Anita Hill was foolishly optimistic but in no way threatening or harassing:

Good morning Anita Hill, it's Ginni Thomas. I just want to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometimes and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.

Professor Hill says she weighed the message for a week before turning it over to Brandeis University security with a request that it be sent to the FBI.

That Professor Hill would regard this message as harassment suggests that her threshold for what constitutes harassment is, shall we say, out of the mainstream and may explain her perceptions of her 1980's interactions with Clarence Thomas.

As far as Brendan's point about Justice Thomas's vote in Bush v. Gore, let it be noted that the holding that the Florida recount violated the Equal Protection Clause was 7-2, including Justices Breyer and Souter. It was only the holding about the remedy that was 5-4. These are inconvenient truths that those on the left often choose to ignore. BTW, the decision of the Court was per curiam (i.e., by the Court, not any individual justice), and while Clarence Thomas joined in Chief Justice Rehnquist's concurrence, Thomas did not write any opinion himself.

[David in Cal]

Brendan seeems to feel that he cannot criticize a liberal without including some sort of comparable criticism of a conservative. In this case, his implication that Fox News Channel is as bad as Maddow was particularly weak. He he didn't even bother to identify any allegedly comparable wrongdoing by FNC.

A fact-free insult is easy to make, but it's childish.

[David in Cal]

Incidentally, David Brock's book, The Real Anita Hill makes some strong points indicating that Hill was lying and Thomas was telling the truth. As I recall:

-- By flatly denying the charge, Thomas would have been risking a perjury conviction if others had overheard the alleged comments.

-- Virtually every person who worked in the office with Thomas and Hill believed Hill.

-- Hill continued to seek the company of Thomas after the alleged sexual harassment. I've met women who really were sexually harassed by their boss. After escaping from that boss's clutches, the last thing these women would have done would have been to maintain a relationship with the harasser.

Incidentally, Hill was well rewarded for her testimony. She got a tenured university position despite zero publications. By comparison, my wife didn't get tenure until she had several dozen publications.

IMHO Virginia Thomas' voice mail was politically foolish regardless of the facts. However, it's totally inexplicable unless she sincerely believes that Hill was lying.

[MartyB]

I have to agree with David re: the villainization of Fox news.

I don't trust any news outlet to give an un-biased view of things. This goes back to the Dan Rather/ Reagan days and even then seeing the bias against conservatives, even though I agreed with liberals on many things at the time.

Has Fox let its conservative bias seep into the news? There seems to be good evidence of this, but nearly every other news organization has done the same to basically the same or greater degrees from the left.

Thank God for the web, where I can often look at the raw source for facts without all the filtering.

[Rob]

Speaking of the villainization of Fox News, yesterday NPR fired Juan Williams for acknowledging on Fox News that seeing someone at the airport in Muslim dress frightens him. Previously NPR asked Williams not to have Fox News include his NPR connection when identifying him, and there were reports about how uncomfortable Williams' appearances on Fox News made NPR executives.

Is there any real doubt that if Williams had made the very same comments on NPR or PBS or CNN or NBC, he'd still be employed by NPR? His sin was saying them on Fox News. For NPR, that was a bridge too far.

[David in Cal]

Sorry, that should be virtually everyone in their office believed Thomas.

[David in Cal]

IMHO if liberals paid more attention to errors made by news sources other than FNC, they'd conclude that FNC is as accurate as most others. E.g., here's as flagrant falsehood about FNC that was made by Politico.