We all love Wikipedia.The online user-created encyclopedia has reached near-ubiquity, especially on college campuses. At universities, it’s controversial — students love the ease of access, and the Web site provides a one-stop shop for all your basic information needs. Professors, however, are hesitant to embrace a user-created resource, especially one which hasn’t been under “intense academic scrutiny.”But whatever your views on Wikipedia, it’s impossible to deny the Internet’s appeal in the information age — it allows you to find all the information you need instantaneously.And, wherever there’s a need for information, some people inevitably need to find that information with an unhealthy helping of bias.Enter Conservapedia, which, unsurprisingly, is the average gut-reaction conservative’s version of the more popular original.The right-wing Web site — with the questionable motto “The Trustworthy Encyclopedia” — mimics Wikipedia, with entries for a myriad of topics. It tends to focus (obviously) on political and religious issues, with huge pages dedicated to the hot-button issues of today.No one should need to be told a Web site with this name is biased, so instead, here’s a few more obvious samples.The abortion page has a picture of an actual human fetus at the front of the page. The third sentence quotes a Bible verse, Deuteronomy 19:11-13: “God warns in His word that ‘a nation that sheds innocent blood will not prosper.'” It concludes the introductory paragraph with a “witty” anti-abortion quote by Ronald Reagan, who coincidentally boasts a page with accolades which make Jesus’ page envious.President Barack Obama’s entry makes Satan’s look complimentary in contrast. Obama was elected mostly because of the money he spent, “much of it raised from undisclosed or fraudulent donors,” and because he “used techniques of mind control in his campaign,” according to Conservapedia. After explaining his presidency was attained using underhanded methods, the article begins in earnest  — like Wikipedia, it is divided into subsections, with such informed headings as “Obamunism,” “Larry Summers – Corrupt and Incompetent Chief Economic Advisor to Obama,” “Obama Administration Health Care Plan and Liberal Elitism,” “Obama is likely the first Muslim President,” and “Enemies List,” a section which accuses Obama’s campaign of “creating a network of domestic informants.”But Conservapedia’s most head-scratchingly puzzling new effort is the “Conservative Bible Project,” a campaign to remove “corruption from liberal bias,” from that great bastion of liberal ideology that is the Word of God.That’s right. The BIBLE is liberally biased.As easy a target as Conservapedia is, it would be foolish to think many level-headed conservatives read for anything more than amusement — although all bets on Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge are off.But it does sadly illustrate a common harmful belief held among many conservatives, albeit in the extremity. It’s a common complaint among those on the right that “the liberal media” distorts the truth. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with believing some sources are biased — bias is virtually impossible to avoid in news, and it’s true some of the more prestigious news sources, such as the New York Times and MSNBC, do lean to the left.But the word is “lean left,” not “irreconcilably slant left.” Universally dismissing mainstream media as “liberally biased” — and thus retreating into the unabashedly conservative nether-world of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, who have turned bias into an art form — is a clever excuse to ignore facts or evidence and instead rely on gut reactions and hardened ideology. As easy as this may make analyzing politics, it certainly makes that analysis fundamentally flawed.I’d like to meet whoever invented the myth all mainstream news is liberally biased so I can shake his hand for his ingenuity — then strangle him to prevent that tactic from poisoning our political atmosphere and isolating conservatives from bringing their share of good ideas to the table.Matthew Albright is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on    Twitter @TDR_malbright.
 
 
 
– – – -Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]