Yes, on America’s college campuses, liberal commencement speakers outnumber conservatives (it would be shocking if they didn’t.) But not by the margin CBS would have viewers believe.
During CBS Evening News on May 26, host Scott Pelley played different clips of university commencement speakers offering advice to the class of 2015. Beginning with Bon Jovi and finishing with Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” Pelley’s segment showed only one conservative speaker out of ten liberal speakers: former president George W. Bush.
To begin the topic, Pelley announced that because “millennials overtake baby boomers to become the largest living generation” in 2015, CBS would showcase “some of the advice these future leaders are getting as they graduate from college this year.”
In the following order, CBS presented speakers offering advice to graduating classes — with 10 liberal speakers and one conservative speaker:
LIBERAL: Jon Bon Jovi, musician, at Rutgers University – Camden
LIBERAL: Neil de Grasse Tyson, astrophysicist, at University of Massachusetts – Amherst
LIBERAL: Ian Brennan, Glee co-creator and executive producer, at Loyola University –Chicago
LIBERAL: Charlie Rose, CBS This Morning co-host, at Georgetown University
LIBERAL: Ken Burns, filmmaker, at Washington University in St. Louis
CONSERVATIVE: George W. Bush, former president of the United States, at Southern Methodist University
LIBERAL: Maya Rudolph, actor, at Tulane University
LIBERAL: Stephen Colbert, comedian, at Wake Forest University
LIBERAL: Robert de Niro, actor, at New York University
LIBERAL: Michelle Obama, first lady of the United States, at Tuskegee University
LIBERAL: Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” at Rutgers University
The 10—1 figure by CBS didn’t reflect reality even for these (more often than not) liberal universities.
“Liberal speakers will outnumber conservatives by at least 6-to-1 at the nation's top 100 schools as ranked by U.S. News & World Report,” Fox’s Perry Chiaramonte reported earlier this month, “according to conservative watchdog group Young America’s Foundation.
