Dan Lawton : Journalist

They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, so I guess I should be blushing like a schoolgirl  at the fact that Bill O’ Reilly commandeered the research behind my recent columns on political diversity at UO.

For a segment aired on Monday,  O’ Reilly sent his squad down to Eugene to research the political imbalance of the U of O faculty.  He surveyed the same five departments– journalism, political science, sociology, law and economics–as I did and came up with slightly different figures but the same conclusion:  The UO faculty lacks conservative voices.

The segment didn’t mention my columns, which was fine by me.  I was contacted by O’Reilly’s producer but never responded because I didn’t want  be complicit in the sort of blood-thirsty ambush interviews that his show has become infamous for.  Sure enough, the segment was punctuated by a FOX News reporter chasing Provost Jim Bean from an athletic club to his car.

Other than that, it wasn’t such a bad discussion.  Lars Larson, a conservative Oregon radio host, was paired against a San Francisco liberal for a brief sparring match.    There was a bunch of stock footage of UO students walking around, then O’ Reilly fulminated a bit and that was that.

Emerald reporter Alex Tomchak Scott has a nice post about the episode, citing the lack of  comparable statistics from other universities and the specious nature of O’Reilly’s assertion that:

“In the country, there are twice as many conservative individuals as liberal in the country, OK? That’s what it is. And I think it breaks down in academia the same way.”

This is of course not true. A great piece of research I came across lately by political scientist Matthew Woessner shows that liberals pursue doctorate degrees–a necessity for college professors–twice as often as conservatives. I don’t think this statistic makes up the extreme disparities we see in higher education, but it’s vital to take into account.