6 ms·

I think the bias in the table actually goes the other way. By breaking down, and omitting parts of, military spending, they make it look relatively minor compa

I think the bias in the table actually goes the other way. By breaking down, and omitting parts of, military spending, they make it look relatively minor compared to SS, Medicare, and Medicaid. They have also chosen to display SS intakes, not outflows, which is a $400B difference.

hugh3 16y ago
If you look at the pdf from the think tank which came up with it, you'll see that one of their arguments for doing it this way is that "An educated taxpayer is a progressive's best customer", leaving no doubt what their political agenda is. Somewhat disingenuous from a think tank called the "Third Way", which was originally intended to imply centrism. Still, it's a general law of NPR reporting that a left-wing think tank is called a "think tank" and a right-wing think tank is called a "right-wing think tank".
- Poiesis 16y ago
  Still, it's a general law of NPR reporting that a left-wing think tank is called a "think tank" and a right-wing think tank is called a "right-wing think tank". I don't really have a dog in this fight, but a quick search suggests you may be mistaken. [site:npr.org "right-wing think tank"] os 8 results; [site:npr.org "think tank"] has about 2380. Nothing funny in robots.txt. But you never know, maybe there aren't that many transcripts on there or something...
  - carbocation 16y ago
    And 4 results for [site:npr.org "left-wing think tank"]
  - hugh3 16y ago
    Or perhaps they rarely quote right-wing think tanks? Still, a bit more googling: 7 hits for "right-wing think tank" vs 4 hits for "left-wing think tank", so apparently they don't use either term very often. 1200 hits for "liberal think tank" vs 285 for "conservative think tank" vs 447 for "libertarian think tank" (all of which seem to be Cato) vs 6 for "moderate think tank". 3 for "Republican think tank", 345 for "Democratic think tank" and 57 for "non-partisan think tank" I take your point, though. What you'd really need to do in order to analyze bias would be to check out "think tank" is used without an adjective and figure out what kind of think tanks those are.
    - yv 16y ago
      These numbers of grossly inaccurate. Go to the last results page of each query to see the real hit count.
projectileboy 16y ago
I thought the same thing. It looked as though they completely left out weapons procurement outside the scope of the wars, which seems almost dishonest. But it feels like I'm nitpicking; overall it's definitely a worthwhile effort.

hugh3 16y ago

If you look at the pdf from the think tank which came up with it, you'll see that one of their arguments for doing it this way is that "An educated taxpayer is a progressive's best customer", leaving no doubt what their political agenda is. Somewhat disingenuous from a think tank called the "Third Way", which was originally intended to imply centrism. Still, it's a general law of NPR reporting that a left-wing think tank is called a "think tank" and a right-wing think tank is called a "right-wing think tank".

Poiesis 16y ago
Still, it's a general law of NPR reporting that a left-wing think tank is called a "think tank" and a right-wing think tank is called a "right-wing think tank". I don't really have a dog in this fight, but a quick search suggests you may be mistaken. [site:npr.org "right-wing think tank"] os 8 results; [site:npr.org "think tank"] has about 2380. Nothing funny in robots.txt. But you never know, maybe there aren't that many transcripts on there or something...
- carbocation 16y ago
  And 4 results for [site:npr.org "left-wing think tank"]
- hugh3 16y ago
  Or perhaps they rarely quote right-wing think tanks? Still, a bit more googling: 7 hits for "right-wing think tank" vs 4 hits for "left-wing think tank", so apparently they don't use either term very often. 1200 hits for "liberal think tank" vs 285 for "conservative think tank" vs 447 for "libertarian think tank" (all of which seem to be Cato) vs 6 for "moderate think tank". 3 for "Republican think tank", 345 for "Democratic think tank" and 57 for "non-partisan think tank" I take your point, though. What you'd really need to do in order to analyze bias would be to check out "think tank" is used without an adjective and figure out what kind of think tanks those are.
  - yv 16y ago
    These numbers of grossly inaccurate. Go to the last results page of each query to see the real hit count.

projectileboy 16y ago

I thought the same thing. It looked as though they completely left out weapons procurement outside the scope of the wars, which seems almost dishonest. But it feels like I'm nitpicking; overall it's definitely a worthwhile effort.