Conservative Bias

Via Matt. Media Matters reports that op-ed pages in newspapers on the whole lean to the right. Matt thinks it's because editors are looking to gain more readers through the inflammatory stuff that Charles Krauthammer writes. I think it's a general overcompensation on the part of the MSM to make sure the right is represented in the media after years of (false) cries that the media has a "liberal bias." What's more true is that the MSM has more biases toward authority figures (the WMD scandal, for example) than any kind of ideological bias. Even so, the media makes a conscious effort to "balance" any statement with something on the right, regardless of whether that statement has real significance.

What lazy reporters do is call up the Center for American Progress to see what they think about issue X and then call the Heritage Foundation and ask them what they think about the issue. That's not balance. The same is true of the op-ed pages. Editors may "feel" that liberal thoughts get more play so they overcompensate by running more conservatives.