Kevin Drum has the most sensible analysis (ignore the comments section) of this Michael Tomasky study:
In another sense, however, I have a hard time taking Tomasky’s study seriously. It’s not that there’s any problem with his methodology, it’s just that I don’t think it addresses the real issue that conservatives claim to have with the media: not political bias, and not editorial page bias, but the default assumption of socially liberal values in the news columns. Eric Alterman was honest enough to address that issue in What Liberal Media?, and his conclusion was, basically, that conservatives probably had a point. Not as big a point as they complain about, but a point nonetheless.
Now, needless to say, social bias in news stories is so subtle that it’s probably impossible for any study to ever draw any firm conclusions about it. But even so, I think that’s the primary point of contention, so while Tomasky’s study is interesting it doesn’t really address the core issue of media bias. That, I think, will probably continue to remain happily in the realm of fact-free ranting.
He has it nailed. Also, as I have stated before, I don’t think that the newsitorials are always a product of intentional liberal bias, but rather the product of laziness and deadlines. There is a reason the thought pieces in bi-monthly and monthly political magazines are almost always vastly superior to newspaper coverage.
Kevin Drum
I’d also be careful not to overplay this. I imagine there’s bias out there, but I also suspect it’s really not as bad as conservatives claim it is.
(FWIW, when a blog claims bias and I go read the story, the complaint almost always turns out to be fairly trivial, or sometimes just flat wrong. Claims of bias are often just indications of bias from the complainer.)
And yes, deadlines are a problem, but it’s not really fair to complain about that. It’s just the nature of the medium.
Moe Lane
“Kevin Drum has the most sensible analysis (ignore the comments section) of this Michael Tomasky study:”
Actually, that particular comment thread seemed reasonably sane, all in all*.
BTW, good analysis, Kevin.
Moe
*Of course, now that I’ve said it, look out… :)
Omnibus Bill
That’s about right. It’s not the Op-Ed page of the NY Times that makes me queasy. It’s the way stories are written — subtle little twists of the knife, always giving primacy to liberal or farther left views, snide little comments, and bowdlerizing if a conservative tries to explain a complicated point. Linda Greenhouse is the best at this. Pretty much singlehandedly, she’s turned Antonin Scalia into the dumbest man in the land. Hard to do considering his intellectual candlepower, but pretty easy if you have a big enough stage and just repeat the lie quietly, over and over again.