On a Friday evening in late March, a room full of curious minds gathered to hear C&IS assistant professor Dr. A.J. Bauer talk about his latest book, Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press. The conversation that unfolded was as timely as it was historically rich. As a historian, ethnographer and former journalist, Bauer brought a unique perspective to the discussion, tracing how right-wing media activism evolved from a critique into a powerful political force.
The event was focused on a sit-down discussion where Bauer, with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Archibald serving as moderator, spoke about certain sections of the book, including personal moments from his own upbringing in North Texas. Through recounting his own political journey and drawing on historical and archival texts, Bauer charts the evolution of media bias perceptions in the U.S. from the 1940s through the 1990s, detailing the pivotal shift from left-wing to right-wing critiques. He illustrates how conservative media became a cornerstone for shaping modern political identities and mobilizing movements.
“I started writing this book more than a decade ago. It started out as a dissertation, but it doesn’t look anything like the dissertation did, including a chapter in the middle that’s about Birmingham,” Bauer said. He paused, then reflected on the deeper challenge the project presented: “The book is kind of a pre-history of Fox News, a pre-history of Rush Limbaugh. How do you do a history of people’s desires and ideas? So, the first thing I asked was, when did people start believing that the media was biased?”
But what makes this book dynamic and topical is that Bauer isn’t using it to litigate what is or isn’t biased or what media is right or wrong, he’s using it as a tool to empathetically interrogate how the conviction that the media leaned left became, regardless of its accuracy, a defining force in American politics.
When asked what he hopes readers leave with once they finish the book, Bauer was direct. “I want them to take away the belief in liberal media bias, that the media is bias against conservatism, is long standing and deeply felt,” he said. “It isn’t just a strategy that conservatives use to work the refs. It’s a deeply felt feeling that we need to contend with.”
It was a memorable evening and a reminder of the rich and meaningful research being produced at C&IS, where faculty like Dr. Bauer are asking big questions and willing to do the work it takes to try and answer them.
To purchase Making the Liberal Media, click here
