Saturday, July 18, 2009

Fair and balanced.

Someone on here accused me of giving away my lack of understanding of American politics when I referred to the Washington Post as right wing. I was simply calling it as I saw it.

So, I was very interested when I read this today on Balloon Juice:

While I was looking around for editorials by paid-for-player David Keene of the American Conservative Union, I stumbled upon this remarkable piece by Ronald Kessler about how great the Washington Post has become:

The Washington Post gave equal display to stories on the dueling national security speeches of President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney. The New York Times relegated the story about Cheney’s speech to a brief article on page A15. The Washington Post reported that CIA records show the agency briefed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on enhanced interrogation techniques in September 2002; the New York Times initially ignored the story.

[....]

New publisher) Weymouth has a self-deprecating manner and a handshake like a Marine. Understandably, she has not said anything publicly about a change in approach. But privately, editors say the tone has changed since she and her pick as editor took over.

[....]

The Washington Post and Fox News show that if journalists put out an honest product that engenders trust, the public will buy it
It’s my sense that the editorial page of the Post has certainly moved farther and farther right, but I don’t know if that can be attributed at all to the new management.
That was my reading of it exactly. It's felt right wing to me for quite some time, which is why I called it that. I'm glad the good denizens of Balloon Juice feel the same way.

Click title for Balloon Juice article.

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