Conservapedia is a great site. It's a very interesting to note the conflicts and interactions among members of the site.
Since I'm not going to analyze the "Examples of Bias in Wikipedia" in my paper, I think I'll just look at them, one at a time, here.
"33: Wikipedia has two million entries, but not one for liberal. Users who go to that term are redirected to the Wikipedia entry on liberalism that conceals the liberal support of gun control and taxpayer funding of abortion, and liberal censorship of prayer in public school.[48]"
Note: Links go to Conservapedia articles.
So, what about the claim? I first went to Wikipedia's "Liberal". It did, as the claim alleges, redirect to "Liberalism". Before I continued, I thought I would analyze the style of Wikipedia. I looked for an article,"Conservative". Like "Liberal", it redirected to "Conservatism".
Prima facie, this is a style issue which is consistent between the bipolar ideologies.
The second claim has two parts. First, that Wikipedia has no article describing an American liberal. Second, that American liberals seek "support of gun control...taxpayer funded abortion...and...censorship of prayer in public school".
So - does WP have an article about American liberalism? If one continues down the page, one finds a link to the page "Social Liberalism", which is described as liberalism in the United States.
We've had quite a trek, but we're there. It does exist. Its crime in this regard seems to be the confusing rhetoric of political science, which has coined liberalism in a number of ways in different contexts. Remember, the "Founding Fathers" were all liberals - but in a different sense than modern liberals.
Does the page make the claims - legitimate or not - about liberalism?
From the page: "Like European social liberals, most modern American liberals advocate a free market economy, cultural pluralism, diplomacy over military action, stem-cell research, the legalization of same-sex marriage, secular government, stricter gun control and environmental protection laws as well as the preservation of abortion rights."
Prayer in public schools is absent from the page; however, as a smaller issue to the general (or world) population - and to today's political discussion - it isn't really missed from an encyclopedia article. Also, I would add that "cultural pluralism" should make an obvious ideological argument against prayer in schools.
I think most conservatives (and liberals) would think that's fair.
Status: No bias found. Perception of bias rooted in global - or "non-Americentric" - structure of articles.
