Folks are always complaining about the liberal media, and local folks love to accuse the Idaho Statesman of being liberal. But the facts don't support that accusation; just the opposite.
In the Sunday edition today, the Insight section has three columnists on the front page; David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, and William Kristol. Inside is a column by Charles Krauthammer. All four of these men are conservatives. There is a column by David Broder, who is widely considered to be pretty neutral, and a column by Ellen Goodman, a somewhat left-leaning columnist. Four conservatives, one moderate, one progressive.
Locals who gripe about the Statesman's (non-existent) liberal bias often point to investigative reporting by Dan Popkey, and say he always picks on Republicans. Well, who else is there to report on? Republicans have all the state wide offices, for now and for the last, what, 16 years, have all the national offices, and dominate in the legislature. Of course Popkey is going to report more on Republicans.
Maybe Popkey and every employee at the Statesman votes a straight Democratic ticket every election. Well, so? Actions speak louder than words, and judging by who they publish, the Statesman is acting pretty conservative.
5 comments:
Thanks, exactly what I thought this morning.
Friedman has been an apologist for some conservative positions, but I wouldn't, myself, characterize him as "conservative."
The accusations of liberality are generally more about the accuser than the accused.
Friedman was hawkish and optimistic on the Iraq war and gets panned regularly on the left wing blogosphere but Tom is probably right, er, correct. Friedman does see the benefit of pushing green technology. I'd put him in the center as a result.
Broder seems to be an integral part of the conservatization of the WaPo editorial board and is often an optimist for ludicrous right wing policies and for concern trolling the left.
I'd tend to put both Friedman and Broder to the right of center. But, agreeing with TVA, this probably says more about me than them.
Oh, It's liberal. VERY liberal. Just get on there and start reading the comments. To bad there isn't a conservative paper in Idaho. I'll check back to see if this even gets posted.
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