By now there isn’t an American who hasn’t at least heard of media bias, and certainly millions of people are well-versed in the conflict between FOX/talk radio/the Internet and, well, just about other every other media outlet. What many people aren’t privy to is the bias that exists in the publishing industry. Now that’s a topic I know a great deal about. In fact, hard as it is to believe, I may know more about it than any other American.

If you had asked me ten years ago whether or not media bias exists, I’d probably have said, “Well, duh.” Even my extremely proud, liberal friend from New Jersey conceded to this fact; its existence is irrefutable. But I couldn’t have known the extent to which it exists – particularly outside of television. Indeed, the term media bias isn’t really the right term; a better term – and, if I recall correctly, Bernard Goldberg used it in his groundbreaking book Bias – is liberal bias.

What exactly is liberal bias – and why can’t liberals argue that there’s a conservative bias in the media? Liberal bias is not a purposeful, banning together of left-wingers in an attempt to undermine conservatives. It’s actually worse than that. Liberal bias refers to any environment in which one finds a singular worldview among its people who distort information to support their agenda. There is a difference between having a liberal perspective and having a liberal bias. This is an extremely important distinction. We may find more conservative voices on FOX News, but that’s not because FOX has a conservative bias; it’s because the producers of the programs allow conservatives to be heard. That some of the network’s commentators are right-leaning isn’t important; what’s important is that they give voice to an alternative point of view.

There is no question that most reporters and television news personalities on all the major networks vote Democrat, just as the folks in Hollywood and on college campuses do. In a 2007 Pew Research Center study of journalists and news executives, the ratio was 4 liberals for each conservative. And something like 90% of college professors vote Democrat. And, as we know too well, the percentage of Hollywood conservatives is so small we often hear about it in the news when one is discovered!

The reason I point to these three arenas – the media, Hollywood, and college campuses – is because they represent 75% of folks in power (outside the White House). It is they who are responsible for either relaying information to the public (media), teaching young people how to think (teachers/professors), or representing the standards by which Americans operate (Hollywood). To have all the power resting in the hands of one mindset is a scary thing indeed.

So where are the other 25% of powerful Americans? Well, they too have built a cult-like environment in a different arena: the publishing industry. There are literally hundreds of publishing companies in America. Five – five – are dedicated to conservative books, and another five of the more mainstream publishers will consider a book by a conservative author. The rest – which is to say, the vast majority — take one look at a proposal an agent has sent, and if it even smells of a right leaning project – in to the trash it goes. The publishing industry is drenched in liberal bias.

Think about that. There are powerful people in this country who decide for you who you can hear from and what you can know. Naturally, editors should locate good books. Good books are books that have an audience — meaning, the topic is hot enough that enough people will want to read it — and are well written. That should be the only criteria for any editor. But it isn’t. There’s a third criteria: It has to speak to them personally.

Now that may be fine for fiction, but for nonfiction it is unacceptable. No editor has the right to turn down a book proposal that has a huge audience and good writing simply because he doesn’t agree with it personally. But that’s exactly how the publishing industry in America works.

And to recap: This is not due to some vast left-wing conspiracy — though I can see how it may sound that way. The truth about the way liberal bias works in publishing (or in the media, or on campus, or in Hollywood) is much more insidious and complex.