Brendan Nyhan
Encyclopedia
Brendan Nyhan is an American
liberal
to moderate
political blog
ger, author, and political columnist. He was born in Mountain View, California
and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan
.
in 1996 and later attended Swarthmore College
where he received a degree in political science
in 2000. He graduated with high honors. In May 2009 Nyhan was awarded a Ph.D.
in Political Science from Duke University
.
While at Swarthmore, Nyhan and Ben Fritz began the L-Word: Swarthmore's Journal
of Progressive
Thought. The periodical was launched in May 1997 and their goal was to provide a forum for the diversity of liberal
thought which exists at the college
. The last issue was in May 1998.
for the failed "Edward M. Bernstein
for US Senate
campaign" in Nevada
.
From 2001-2003, Nyhan managed new projects and then marketing
and fundraising
for Benetech
, a Silicon Valley
technology
nonprofit.
From 2001-2004, Nyhan (with Ben Fritz and Bryan Keefer) co-edited Spinsanity, a non-partisan watchdog of political spin
that was syndicated in Salon.com
in 2002 on-line and the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2004 in print and on the internet
. While Spinsanity was active the authors logged over four hundred articles. Spinsanity closed on January 19, 2005.
Nyhan co-authored the non-fiction political book All the President's Spin: George W. Bush, the Media and the Truth in 2004 along with Fritz and Keefer. According to reviewer John Moe the book "detail[s] how Bush and company, more than any administration in history
, cherry pick information that they find helpful, regardless of how representative it is of the overall truth, and then package it with a forceful and persistent presentation that eventually takes on the patina of reality."
All the President's Spin reached the New York Times non-fiction paperback bestseller list as #14 in the September 5th edition.
Nyhan has also written for other political and news publications which are on-line such as American Prospect (circa 2002), Time
, and others.
In 2011, upon completion of his term as a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research, Nyhan will join the faculty of Dartmouth College
as an assistant professor of government.
pundits. According to Nyhan, "Sam Rosenfeld, the magazine's online editor, asked that I focus my blogging on conservative
targets." Rosenfeld denied that this was the case. Nyhan, due to his background writing about such topics, (e.g. Spinsanity) refused and decided to terminate his relationship with the American Prospect (aka TAP).
TAP editor Michael Tomasky said that "[t]he Prospect is hardly averse to criticizing liberal
verities" ... but "there were a few posts in succession that struck us as either inaccurate or an effort to draw equivalencies where none existed." Tomasky said that Nyhan had made unfounded allegations for reasons of self-promotion, saying: The Prospect has always opposed a 'pox on both houses' posture, and that's what we came to believe [Nyhan was] doing."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
to moderate
Moderate
In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who is not extreme, partisan or radical. In recent years, political moderates has gained traction as a buzzword....
political blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger, author, and political columnist. He was born in Mountain View, California
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
.
Education
Nyhan graduated from Mountain View High SchoolMountain View High School (Mountain View, California)
Mountain View High School , one of three Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District public high schools, is located in at 3535 Truman Avenue, Mountain View, California, 94040. Mountain View High School serves a diverse student body of over 1750 students from the cities of Mountain View, Los...
in 1996 and later attended Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
where he received a degree in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
in 2000. He graduated with high honors. In May 2009 Nyhan was awarded a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Political Science from Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
.
While at Swarthmore, Nyhan and Ben Fritz began the L-Word: Swarthmore's Journal
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
of Progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
Thought. The periodical was launched in May 1997 and their goal was to provide a forum for the diversity of liberal
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
thought which exists at the college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
. The last issue was in May 1998.
Career background
In 2000, Nyhan served as the Deputy Communications DirectorPublic relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
for the failed "Edward M. Bernstein
Edward M. Bernstein
Edward M. Bernstein is a noted Southern Nevada attorney, philanthropist, politician, and TV talk show host.-History:Bernstein graduated Long Island University in New York with his bachelors degree in 1971. In 1975, he completed his law degree from Widener University Law School.Bernstein moved to...
for US Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
campaign" in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
.
From 2001-2003, Nyhan managed new projects and then marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
and fundraising
Fundraising
Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...
for Benetech
Benetech
Benetech was founded in 1989 by high technology entrepreneur Jim Fruchterman in Palo Alto, California. Benetech is a not-for-profit social enterprise organization: it creates technology social ventures, such as Bookshare , the Route 66 Literacy Project, the Miradi environmental project management...
, a Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
nonprofit.
From 2001-2004, Nyhan (with Ben Fritz and Bryan Keefer) co-edited Spinsanity, a non-partisan watchdog of political spin
Spin (public relations)
In public relations, spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure...
that was syndicated in Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
in 2002 on-line and the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2004 in print and on the internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. While Spinsanity was active the authors logged over four hundred articles. Spinsanity closed on January 19, 2005.
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, cherry pick information that they find helpful, regardless of how representative it is of the overall truth, and then package it with a forceful and persistent presentation that eventually takes on the patina of reality."
All the President's Spin reached the New York Times non-fiction paperback bestseller list as #14 in the September 5th edition.
Nyhan has also written for other political and news publications which are on-line such as American Prospect (circa 2002), Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, and others.
In 2011, upon completion of his term as a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research, Nyhan will join the faculty of Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
as an assistant professor of government.
Controversies
In late 2006 Nyhan was again tapped to write about "media criticism" for the American Prospect. However, after a few essays/posts he came under attack from the editors for unwarranted criticism of liberalLiberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
pundits. According to Nyhan, "Sam Rosenfeld, the magazine's online editor, asked that I focus my blogging on conservative
American conservatism
Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...
targets." Rosenfeld denied that this was the case. Nyhan, due to his background writing about such topics, (e.g. Spinsanity) refused and decided to terminate his relationship with the American Prospect (aka TAP).
TAP editor Michael Tomasky said that "[t]he Prospect is hardly averse to criticizing liberal
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
verities" ... but "there were a few posts in succession that struck us as either inaccurate or an effort to draw equivalencies where none existed." Tomasky said that Nyhan had made unfounded allegations for reasons of self-promotion, saying: The Prospect has always opposed a 'pox on both houses' posture, and that's what we came to believe [Nyhan was] doing."
Honors and awards
- In 2003 he received an "Award of Distinction" from the "Center on Media and Public Affairs", a conservative media watchdog, for debunking National Education AssociationNational Education AssociationThe National Education Association is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become...
(NEA)-9/11 reporting. - In 2004 Amazon.comAmazon.comAmazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
chose All the President's Spin: George W. Bush, the Media and the Truth as one of the ten best political books of the year. - Nyhan was selected as a fellowFellowA fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
to the 2006-2007 Program for Advanced Research in the Social SciencesSocial sciencesSocial science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
(PARISS) by Duke UniversityDuke UniversityDuke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. - Nyhan was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
for 2009-2011.
Books
- Nyhan, Brendan, et al. (2004). All the President's Spin: George W. Bush, the Media and the Truth, Touchstone Publishing, New York. ISBN 0743262514.
External links
- Brendan Nyhan Political Blog.
- Nyhan's Duke Web Page, includes political science papers.
- American Prospect review of All The President's Spin, August 10, 2004.
- Article by the Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
about Spinsanity, Nyhan quoted frequently.