Associate Professor of English Dr. Jason Mosser treated attendees at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association to a timely exploration of media bias in early November 2011 when he presented his paper "The Equivalency Myth: The Right's Assault on MSNBC."

In the paper, Mosser focuses on the media coverage of the shooting of Democratic Congressman Gabrielle Giffords and questions some widely accepted explanations of this tragic event. 

Noting that the shooting "sent shock waves of panic through the right-wing establishment and mainstream news media," Mosser goes on to question whether the shooter's motives could be entirely explained by his mental condition.

"As questions were raised about whether Jared Loughner's actions were influenced by right-wing propagandists like FOX, Limbaugh and others, politicians and pundits rushed to assure Americans that (a) Loughner was simply insane, ipso facto aplolitical, and that (b) if our political climate did influence his act, then both sides in the partisan conflict were somehow to blame; thus, they implicitly absolved themselves of responsibility while they perpetrated the myth of equivalency between left-wing and right-wing media bias."

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