The disparity, as dramatic as it is, mirrors the the political composition of many other journalism schools across the country.  A 2005 study of nine top journalism schools by David Horowitz and Joseph Light revealed similar ratios of political affiliation.  Columbia University had 15 Democrats and one Republican, while Berkeley had ten Democrats and zero Republicans.

According to a study performed by UO economist Bill Harbaugh in 2006, there are 15:5 registered Democrats in the total UO faculty for every one Republican.  The Oregon Daily Emerald reported that 96% of contributions during the 2008 election cycle went to Democratic candidates; in 2004 the figure was 100%.

Academia generally trends to the left, and the concentration of liberal professors at UO isn’t too surprising.  In most subjects, politics are irrelevant, but not in journalism.  The question of whether or not reporting is fair and objective is reliant upon how the beholder perceives the ideas presented.  It is innately difficult to support journalism that reveals an inadequacy or flaw in one’s own ideology.  How many times does a pro-choice advocate heap praise on pro-life reporting or vice-versa?

In fact, the two biggest media watchdogs in the business are divided on ideological terms.  Media Matters is “dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.” Newsbusters calls itself “the leader in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias.” The bottom line:  people rarely push ideas they dislike, and that goes for college professors as well.

“College is supposed to be the marketplace of ideas ” said C.J. Ciaramella, editor of the UO conservative magazine The Commentator.  “But it’s more like the Model T of ideas here, you can get any one you want as long as it’s black.”

Jon Palfreman, a long form documentary filmmaker and UO journalism professor, agrees the University can be hostile to Republican thought.  “Diversity of ideas means embracing ideas that you hate as well as ideas that you like.  We don’t have many smart right-wing ideas on campus here, and you probably won’t survive by promulgating such ideas,” he said.

I’ve been a journalism graduate student at UO for the last year, and though I’ve found the facutly to be generally open-minded, there’s no question that the discourse suffers when half of the political spectrum isn’t represented.  Journalism thrives on ideas, not just left-wing ideas or right-wing ideas, but a steady stream of diverse ideas. I don’t think a ratio of 26-0 or 38-2 achieves that.  Although, short of a political litmus test (which I’d oppose), I’m not exactly sure what can be done about it.