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In the early '80s, I stopped reading the Washington Post on a regular basis because I was disgusted with the number of editorializing stories appearing on A1, essentially portraying as news the backroom chatter of Democrats and liberal Republicans about Reagan and his administration. During that period, I saw a symposium on C- Span held at the American Enterprise Institute, getting reaction on the Lichter media study that showed that editors and reporters at the leading outlets (the Post, the Times, the networks, etc.) were overwhelmingly liberal and Democratic. Ben Bradlee was on the panel, and was utterly dismissive, calling it absurd that anyone could think that his people were not professional enough to set their biases aside.....Now, perhaps 15 years later, the Post is a far more even- handed paper, and it is willing to admit that it used to be more biased, and that there was an effort to counter that. In fact, Meg Greenfield, the recently deceased editorial page editor, a tough- minded moderate, is widely credited with being the instigator of change, not because she had authority on the news side, but due to her moral influence. The bias was there; even if it is not entirely gone, it is far less; and many other outlets should follow the Posts example..... |
