Whoa, Dann. Some serious and questionable assumptions in this missive. First, the NYTimes publishes columnists of several stripes. Even if more are liberal, a few are definitely not: William Safire, David Brooks and Tierney, among them. They also publish Op-Ed pieces by every manner of political position.
The NYTimes boasted stories by Judith Miller and others who plumped the Bush line on Iraq and several other major issues, often to a fault, and Miller clearly crossed the line between journalist and mouthpiece. The Post is not a "liberal" paper. It has been very supportive of the Bush administration in most areas of governance. It features a range of political pundits from Richard Cohen and EJ Dionne to David Broder and George Will. Columnists in general do not necessarily reflect the philosophical bent of the editorial page itself. And reporters generally ignore the editorial policy of the paper when covering news. The Strib carries columnists Katherine Kersten, yes, but also Nick Coleman and Doug Grow, all of whom have disagreed with the Editorial Page on several occasions. The Strib is an interesting example of conflicted values, supporting strongly public funding for professional sports (I call that a conservative position) while taking a decidedly progressive view on tax policy and social issues. The paper can be all over the map on issues in which they have a stake they won't acknowledge - like the importance of professional sports to their revenue and profits to their recommendation for city governance structure reform, which clashes with previous positions by the same editorial staff regarding at-large council representation. The Pioneer Press has been a conservative paper all along, but since Ron Clark has gone, some editorials have gone against the Chamber of Commerce - like smoking bans, which they support, despite endorsing Randy Kelly. The Wall Street Journal reports and muckrakes on key issues one would find "liberal," while the editorial page is all but fascist. The Washington Times carries liberal op-ed writers like Barry Casselman (from Minneapolis) even when its editorial page bluntly backs Bush on nearly every issue. It takes a lot of reading to know where writers come down, but to suggest all columnists and writers for liberal or conservative papers march in lock-step behind the editorial pages is to miss reality coming off the page. Andy Driscoll Saint Paul -- "The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." Plato "Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity." Lord Acton on 11/7/05 4:54 PM, Dann Dobson wrote: > Ray - > > You write, "If the Editorial and News functions of a newspaper are kept > separate, why do the NYTimes and the Washington Post have no conservatives > writing for them? > > If the Editorial and News functions of a newspaper are kept separate, why do > the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times not have liberals writing > for them." (sic) > > First, I am not sure if you are writing about the editorial or the news side > of each paper, when you write your comments above. If you are speaking of > the editorial page, what you write should be self-evident. > > The NY Times and Washington Post are liberal papers and the Wall Street > Journal and Washington Times are conservative papers, so their columnists / > writers reflect the views of the editors / publishers. > > If you are writing about the news side of these papers how do you know that > the NY Times and Washington Post have no conservatives writing for them and > how do you know that the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times have no > liberals writing for them? You should never know if a reporter if liberal or > conservative. > > But I can tell you this, I ran into a reporter for the Star Tribune today > and we got to talking about your earlier post and she said while the > Star-Tribune is allegedly a "liberal" paper, she pointed out that there are > both Doug Tice, who used to write editorials for the Pioneer Press and > pro-life editorials in City Pages or Twin Cities Reader and Katherine > Kerstin writing for the Strib. Both of these writers are extremely > conservative. > > Dann Dobson Summit Hill - Saint Paul > [EMAIL PROTECTED] REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
