Liberal bias isn't killing newspapers

Boston Globe ^ | May 6, 2009 | Jeff Jacoby

[MartinaMisc]

'I SURE HOPE you'll be out of a job soon," e-mails a friend, alluding to The Boston Globe's current excruciations. He really is a friend - he has shown me and my family much warmth and kindness over the years - and should I find myself without a job, I'm sure he would want to help in any way he could. But such is his antipathy to the Globe that he regards my potential unemployment as a price well worth paying for what he calls the "greater good" of the newspaper's demise.

My friend is a conservative, and he is not alone in his views. To many on the right, the increasingly dire straits in which newspapers find themselves are something to cheer, or at any rate nothing to regret. The industry, they believe, is merely reaping in falling revenues and fleeing subscribers what it sowed in left-wing bias and unbalanced news coverage.

"Good riddance to bad trash," crows one conservative blogger, linking gleefully to Warren Buffett's forecast of "nearly unending losses" for US newspapers. "Good Riddance" is likewise James Srodes's message in the American Spectator, where he begins a column by "letting loose a small raspberry at the flood of hand-wringing going on over The Decline of the American Daily Newspaper." His disdain is echoed by readers, one of whom snorts: "Their pages are full of liberal tripe, lies about science and misbegotten theories of life. It's a wonder they sell any papers at all."

[ALPAPilot]

When was the last time you read an article on a subject that you had great knowledge of and you came away thinking .. this writer gets it rather than “he’s clueless”.

There was a great pot roast article in the Wall Street Journal a month or so ago. I made it it was good. Other than that, not very much. The Wall Street Journal is somewhat conservative and there circulation has been fairly stable.

I remember after the Value Jet crashed into the Everglades, a USA article said most passenger flights carried hazardous cargo. I had flown for a number of years for the largest U.S. airline, in their largest two fleets. Crews have to be notified of hazardous cargo. Maybe 1 out of 10 flights had hazardous cargo. 9 out of 10 times the hazardous cargo was dry ice. Other than that, its small quantities of radioactive medical items. It would have been so easy for the reporter to get the facts; too lazy I guess. I don't usually believe what I read any more. That was just one example.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Jacoby is the Globe’s token conservative.

[Antoninus]

Liberal bias isn't killing newspapers

It may not be the only factor, but it's impossible to deny that it IS a factor.

[South40]

My 'former' paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, refuses to used the words, "ILLEGAL aliens". I read it online still and they continue to call them, "undocumented immigrants". In a story just yesterday that described the border patrol capture of 30 ILLEGAL aliens they called them "Mexican nationals".

San Diego County is a bastion of conservatism in an otherwise very liberal state. So when the local paper deliberatly, willfully and intentionally panders to the minority liberal readers they cut their own throats.

They're sinking like a rock and to that I say, good riddance.

[Lee'sGhost]

“But if liberal media bias is the explanation, why are undeniably left-of-center papers like the Globe, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle attracting more readers than ever when visitors to their websites are taken into account?”

Uh, well, if that’s true, the question is, why aren’t they enjoying the profits from the advertisers who pay per hit? Revenue should be going up.

[razorback-bert]

In 1987, I quit taking the NYT, because one day in January, I read a story and said WTF this is his opinion as to why this happened, there is no what happened.