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Sunday, September 26, 2004

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is irate, rightly so, that the New York Times Magazine has a ten-page story on blogs and only profiles liberal bloggers as if they're the only ones out there. There is a brief mention of Mickey Kaus, who does cover fairly both sides, although he is a Democrat and has said that he'll vote for Kerry and has given him $300.

This is what one of my former students, a high school junior, wrote me about the story.
today's NY Times
Magazine must raise the bar for all future cases of one-sided journalism.
Their headline is about how important bloggers are to the upcoming election
(something that a regular reader of the blogosphere would already know, of
course). Considering this is the New York Times, you would probably expect
them to lean more than a little to the left in their coverage.
Well, no one ever said the NY Times was unpredictable. Their story does lean left. But more than a little left. It leans further to the left than Maxine Waters. It does profiles of four bloggers--Atrios, Daily Kos, Josh Marshall, and Wonkette. Even the blogs they mention in passing--such as MyDD--are all liberal. What is even more ironic is that it talks about coverage of the Republican convention. Would it have been too much work for
them to find a conservative blogger at the biggest meeting of conservatives in four years?
If high schoolers can see what is wrong with the NY Times Magazine story, why can't the editors there see the problem?

UPDATE: Allah and Ace are also upset, but Instapundit isn't.

UPDATE II: Hugh Hewitt is also not upset.
This piece is what the lawyers call "an admission against interest" combined with an undeniable expression of liberal bias in MSM. The admission is that the blogosphere matters a lot. The expression of bias is the incredible series of whopping omissions in the coverage. This is MSM's attempt --and there will be many more-- to "credential" some of their favorites in the blogosphere, thus elevating them and hopefully their readership. How can you be surprised that the way left Times profiles way left bloggers for their way left audience to hopefully bookmark and consult as a sort of internet annex to the still dominant New York Times?

It is a vast cry for help, a plea for reinforcements. The bloggers are inside the citadel, so call in the allied bloggers.

We can test the strength of this tactic by the NYT by checking the hits at the blogs mentioned in the article this week and then further on a few weeks from now and see if the liberal bloggers en masse have surpassed the conservatives. There are plenty of conservative bloggers in the top 25. The NY Times Magazine could check some of them out.

UPDATE III: N.Z. Bear does a nice fisking of the article.

posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 10:11 AM

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HOME Betsy neither necessarily uses, nor endorses, the products advertised on this site. Comments from an AP history and government teacher in Raleigh, NC. e-mail betsynewmark AT gmail.com Site Feed Wikio Your Market Research Here		Sunday, September 26, 2004 Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs is irate, rightly so, that the New York Times Magazine has a ten-page story on blogs and only profiles liberal bloggers as if they're the only ones out there. There is a brief mention of Mickey Kaus, who does cover fairly both sides, although he is a Democrat and has said that he'll vote for Kerry and has given him $300. This is what one of my former students, a high school junior, wrote me about the story. today's NY Times Magazine must raise the bar for all future cases of one-sided journalism. Their headline is about how important bloggers are to the upcoming election (something that a regular reader of the blogosphere would already know, of course). Considering this is the New York Times, you would probably expect them to lean more than a little to the left in their coverage. Well, no one ever said the NY Times was unpredictable. Their story does lean left. But more than a little left. It leans further to the left than Maxine Waters. It does profiles of four bloggers--Atrios, Daily Kos, Josh Marshall, and Wonkette. Even the blogs they mention in passing--such as MyDD--are all liberal. What is even more ironic is that it talks about coverage of the Republican convention. Would it have been too much work for them to find a conservative blogger at the biggest meeting of conservatives in four years? If high schoolers can see what is wrong with the NY Times Magazine story, why can't the editors there see the problem? UPDATE: Allah and Ace are also upset, but Instapundit isn't. UPDATE II: Hugh Hewitt is also not upset. This piece is what the lawyers call "an admission against interest" combined with an undeniable expression of liberal bias in MSM. The admission is that the blogosphere matters a lot. The expression of bias is the incredible series of whopping omissions in the coverage. This is MSM's attempt --and there will be many more-- to "credential" some of their favorites in the blogosphere, thus elevating them and hopefully their readership. How can you be surprised that the way left Times profiles way left bloggers for their way left audience to hopefully bookmark and consult as a sort of internet annex to the still dominant New York Times? It is a vast cry for help, a plea for reinforcements. The bloggers are inside the citadel, so call in the allied bloggers. We can test the strength of this tactic by the NYT by checking the hits at the blogs mentioned in the article this week and then further on a few weeks from now and see if the liberal bloggers en masse have surpassed the conservatives. There are plenty of conservative bloggers in the top 25. The NY Times Magazine could check some of them out. UPDATE III: N.Z. Bear does a nice fisking of the article. posted by Betsy Newmark permalink 10:11 AM \|

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Sunday, September 26, 2004