Looking For Conservative Facts

I like reading most of the articles on Media Matters for America. They have a nice format where they will outline the claim(s) of some conservative, then detail some facts in rebuttal. In addition to factual errors, they'll discuss biased reporting, misleading on-screen graphics, or anything else they take issue with. There is apparently enough misinformation out there for them to write several research articles and several blog posts a day.

The blog posts, incidentally, are less fun to read. They often use name calling in their arguments and are lighter on the facts. It's where the quicker and smaller updates happen, though, so I still give them a read most of the time.

Media Matters is definitely a liberal website. For example, almost all of their articles are debunking claims made on Fox News. I don't think this is a complete picture of the world. I'd really like to hear conservatives countering liberal reporting with supporting facts.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find those facts. The closest thing I've been able to find is the Media Research Center. Mostly, their articles are just reporting that some reporting was done, and we are supposed to recognize the liberal bias - somehow. They rarely counter with facts, which is a bit disappointing. There's also NewsBusters.org (a project of the Media Research Center), but that has the same problem of being light on facts.

Maybe that's just the way things are, currently. Perhaps liberals have facts to back up their positions - or at least tear down the opposition, and conservatives just complain that reporting they don't like is liberal. But there have to be some facts somewhere, right?

Amazingly enough, the best source I've found for "liberal-media" bashing is The Daily Show. However, most of their media bashing is showing the ridiculousness of the reporting and not usually an issue with the facts or arguments. Except when they cover Fox News.

FactCheck.org is useful in fact checking politicians, but they rarely cover the media directly, so they are usually only active around election time. They do an excellent job of remaining impartial, though. FiveThirtyEight does an excellent job of discussing political bias in polls, among other things, but this only helps indirectly. I know that Rasmussen tends to favor conservatives, so Fox News uses it a lot, but there aren't always matching polls from other institutions readily available to compare to.

Which is another problem entirely - facts themselves are often biased. People choose the poll with the results they want to report. Conservative think tanks will make certain assumptions in their studies to yield facts that support the conservative point of view. I imagine there are probably some liberal think tanks that are similarly biased in their studies, but there doesn't appear to be anyone calling them out on it. So, I humbly ask for help. Where do you go when you want to be informed (with facts) on the conservative side of things, and how can you trust those facts?

Voter registration

I recently updated my voter registration. I changed my address to my current residence, but I also changed my party affiliation from UNAFFILIATED to REPUBLICAN. This allows me to participate in the Republican primary caucuses. I'm very excited about this. It will be my first primary election activity.

The bad news? I won't be allowed to vote in the Democratic Party Presidential Caucus. Between the two, I'd rather vote in the Republican one. For one, I can usually live with any Democrat better than I can with many of the Republicans out there now - I can better ensure a workable candidate by choosing the opposition. In this particular case, I'm also more passionate about my support of Ron Paul than I am for any of the Democratic candidates. There's a picture I saw where a supporter was wearing a T-shirt or holding a sign that said "Dr. Paul cured my apathy." I agree with that.

So, at 9:00A.M. on Saturday, February 9, 2008, you should be able to find me at Blue Valley NW High School, 13260 Switzer. Are you registered Republican in Kansas? Find your caucus location!