You may remember when our beloved (it is at this point I wish there were a sarcasm font) governor suggested that we suspend Congressional elections in 2012, and the “unbiased” Daily Tar Heel refused to devote so much as a column on the issue. Instead they lambasted the governor with a vicious “Thumbs Down” in their Quick Hits section. If not, you can read my brief post about it here.
Well, today, the DTH gave similar treatment to another controversy involving the governor. During her campaign, several members of Perdue’s staff allegedly siphoned money from the campaign to pay certain members of the campaign under the table. The DTH gave this too a “Thumbs Down”. No article or column or letter to the editor… just a “Thumbs Down”.
This gets at the ubiquitous liberal bias at UNC that Anthony Dent has been pointing out recently. It is not that liberals here necessarily wake up and say, “I’m going to discriminate against conservatives today” (though I’m convinced some of the very worst offenders may very well intentionally show bias because you have to try to be that hostile to open debate). They just sweep news that goes against liberal orthodoxy or that would harm their precious Democrats under the rug, and they see the conservative groups offering an alternative as an uneducated bunch who would become enlightened if they “got it”. Whether it is celebrating the diversity that manifests in Muslim students requesting a place to pray and perform the pre-prayer washing ritual (Wudu) and then lambasting Christmas trees on campus or not allowing their writers to affiliate with campus political parties and then ignoring scandals by Democrats, the Daily Tar Heel has shown that it is participates in liberal bias that touches almost every aspect of campus politics and political discussion.