Nothing is more crucial to the right wing than the myth of "liberal media bias." It is, quite simply, a one-size-fits-all, best-defense-is-good-offense response to anything that threatens to get in their way.  Witness Bush's attempt to shift blame to the New York Times for (very belatedly) spilling the beans on his wanton lawbreaking with countless illegal wiretaps.

The problem is, the myth, for all its propaganda power, is just that--a myth.  Which is why there's a crying need to dress it up as "fact."  Conservatives have been trying to do this for quite some time, with unconvincing results, to say the least. But now they've upped their ante with a new study promoted by UCLA's media office, in a press release ("Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist") that could have been written by a rightwing think tank.  And the study itself, it appears, virtually was, despite the fact that one of two co-authors--Tim Groseclose--is a UCLA professor.  It's already getting out there in the rightwing blogosphere, so let's do some debunking, shall we?

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