Several MB readers have brought this article in the New York Times to my attention. The article, by Princeton professor Alan Krueger, reports that a new study out of Berkeley has found that alleged bias on Fox News had no effect on political persuasion or voter turnout in the 2000 election.

I haven’t had a chance to look at the study yet so I have no idea how it was cobbled together, but I find it interesting that the study proves that bias doesn’t matter, rather than that Fox News isn’t biased. I also find it interesting that NY Times should run an article about how bias doesn’t matter on the day after its public editor, Byron Calame, dusted off his “Web log” and wrote that, “after checking with editors at the paper,” he’s found no evidence of liberal bias at the Times, specifically in its failure to cover the growing Air America scandal. The lack of coverage of the scandal in the MSM is so bad, bloggers Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney have launched their own investigation. The notable exception is the New York Sun. As Ed Morrissey put it, “Looks like the Sun ate the Times’ lunch. Again. Do you think Bill Keller will ever feel embarrassed by this?”

Possibly. At least Calame criticized the NY Times “slowness to cover official investigations into questionable financial transactions involving Air America,” writing that readers were “poorly served.” As Mediacrity reports, saying anything critical of the Times is a big step for Calame. But apparently, admitting the liberal bias that Dan Okrent already found at the Times is a step too far.