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::Alright, I didn't realize that. Were they a sockpuppet you mean? Or did they engage in spam some other way? Sorry about the mistake. I guess there's some info I'm not able to see from the logs, which is what I was going by. --[[User:Jzyehoshua|Joshua Zambrano]] 05:21, 27 July 2012 (EDT)
::Alright, I didn't realize that. Were they a sockpuppet you mean? Or did they engage in spam some other way? Sorry about the mistake. I guess there's some info I'm not able to see from the logs, which is what I was going by. --[[User:Jzyehoshua|Joshua Zambrano]] 05:21, 27 July 2012 (EDT)
::I'd even checked deleted page logs for the user just to make sure they hadn't created a bad page that got deleted, and didn't see anything there. Just off the information I knew existed, I couldn't see any reason for the block, and apologize for the unblock. I will make sure to check with senior admins from now on too, I hadn't realized Ed Poor was one. I'll check with any users on this list[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special:ListUsers&group=sysop] first from now on, sorry about that. --[[User:Jzyehoshua|Joshua Zambrano]] 05:28, 27 July 2012 (EDT)
::I'd even checked deleted page logs for the user just to make sure they hadn't created a bad page that got deleted, and didn't see anything there. Just off the information I knew existed, I couldn't see any reason for the block, and apologize for the unblock. I will make sure to check with senior admins from now on too, I hadn't realized Ed Poor was one. I'll check with any users on this list[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special:ListUsers&group=sysop] first from now on, sorry about that. --[[User:Jzyehoshua|Joshua Zambrano]] 05:28, 27 July 2012 (EDT)
== Our main page conversation ==
Thought it might be more productive and discreet to continue our chat off the main page talk page. Here's my response:
:::::To deal with your first and second points: yes, the BBC is a special case; I cited it (a) because I'm British and (b) because the unique status of the BBC (publicly funded through a levy on TV owners, but kept as scrupulously away from political control as possible by means of its charter) means that it's the only media organization in my home country that is actually meant to be unbiased (I suppose the US equivalents would be PBS and NPR, though as I understand it their audiences are so vanishingly small as not to matter very much).
:::::All other media, in a free market, are free to present the news as they wish. So you have liberal media (NY Times, MSNBC) and conservative media (Fox, WSJ). I've spent some time professionally in media analysis (though not to do with political bias), and it's a very tricky, nuanced thing to do. But ultimately it doesn't matter: news media are free to present the news with whatever slant they want. Audiences decide which they like best. The free market works: the only problem, in a democracy, is when uneducated people believe uncritically whatever they are told, because their lack of education means they don't know better. Democracy founders on the ignorance and indifference of the electorate; that is its Achilles' heel, which is why I value education so highly. And this wiki purports to be an educational tool, which is why I devote so much time to it, (It's marketed as a home-schooling resource, which is laughable and terrifying in equal measure -- see the entry on E=mc2, for instance).
:::::I'm not convinced by your fourth point; let me tell you why. Yes, journalists tend to be better educated than the general public. But then you shift the blame to the colleges, which you claim exhibit liberal bias. Now, why should educational institutions be liberally biased? Perhaps because they tend to be located in urban centers, where people are more aware of the diversity of the society around them? (Cities are almost always more liberal than rural areas.) Perhaps because the very process of becoming educated exposes students to diversity, and causes them to be more aware of different people, and of how society as a whole works? One of the things any educational institution worthy of the name must do is encourage critical thinking, so that students question what they are told rather than swallowing it without tasting. It's possible to go through all of this and yet emerge with a conservative viewpoint; I have many highly educated friends who have.
:::::In sum, I don't believe the assertion that colleges have a liberal bias. The bias they have is against ignorance and prejudice. Much of this wiki, in contrast, is biased in favor of ignorance and prejudice. --[[User:Esseph|Esseph]] 16:34, 29 July 2012 (EDT)
:::::As far as the OpenSecrets.org data is concerned, no surprises there. Business owners expect the GOP to give them breaks; all the other groups you mention will tend to fare better under the Democrats. Note how the Texas GOP recently came out against educating children to think critically. -- [[User:Esseph|Esseph]] 16:48, 29 July 2012 (EDT)