This story on political viewpoints getting on university reading lists (in the US) is an important one, as it shows how the good ol’ American tradition of inserting bias into education has reached a teaching of the enviro
nment.
As some of the comments on this article say, the textbook in question (‘American Government’) is a politics book, not a science textbook. And the point being…? Any publishing on issues of science must get the science right. And there’s a lot of bias around. This is a nice article on the seven types of curricular bias to watch out for.
Restricted to America? Not at all. Some archived articles covering bias in textbooks from Italy, Japan, the Czech Republic, (article from one of my favourite sites, the F-Word). And not one of my favourite sites, those homophobes and xenophobes over at the BNP even think it’s a serious issue.
Good to know Grist has its eyes on this for environmental oversight (as in the US meaning of the word, not the British). Grist editorial is a good example of covering environmental issues. They say their coverage is “gloom and doom with a sense of humour. So laugh now — or the planet gets it.” The idea that people get turned off by negative coverage was covered Futerra’s report on UK media coverage of climate change. You can downoad the report here: Futerra Media Report.
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