We Interrupt This Hiatus To State The Obvious

washingtonpost.com has finally gotten around to hiring a conservative blogger, nearly a half year after I was informed by ombudsman Deborah Howell, in response to a question I asked her, that post.com chief Jim Brady was looking into it. The blog, Red America, is written by Red State's Ben Domenech. Michelle Malkin recently predicted the left would "go nuts" over this, and sure enough they are, as noted by Editor & Publisher.

Some of the reaction is based on plain ignorance. The Washington Post does have conservative Op-Ed columnists; washingtonpost.com, until today, did not. Many people still don't understand the extent to which post.com is a separate fiefdom.

If you count bloggers only--as opposed to newspaper columnists who blog--there just hasn't been a clearly identifiable conservative.The Think Tank Town blog is written by Ron Nessen, former press secretary for Republican President Gerald Ford, but these days he's working at the liberal Brookings Institution. His blog, which I don't read regularly, appears commendable in its even-handed survey of think-tank activities (recent entries include comment about a Cato Institute study criticizing Bush's National Security Strategy, balanced by two Brookings scholars attacking Bush's National Security Strategy).

People who feel more at home with the left have bloggers like Jefferson "Downing Street Memo" Morley, an alum of The Nation. Yesterday he wrote:

Three years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the heated debate in the British media about the war has given way to a gloomier discussion about Iraq's dismal state....

which is the sort of thing Morley usually writes. So be it. Other than that item's focus on Britain--Morley's column is called World Opinion Roundup--the sentiment would be equally at home with William Arkin's column or anything by Dan Froomkin or Emily Messner or so on and so on. One blogger that broke the mold a bit is Bert Stover, a chief warrant officer serving in Iraq in a National Guard unit. But Stover is a writing a from-the-trenches blog (Reporting For Duty) and since liberals Support Our Troops every bit as much as conservatives, Stover's doesn't factor into this equation.

So it is a marvel, but given the track record should not be, that the outrage of the left led to exchanges like this in a live chat with the Post's Tom Edsall:

Washington, D.C.: The hiring of the Red State Blogger is yet another example of why I cancelled my subscription to The Post and do not intend to ever re-instate it. The Post's view that it needs to "balance" viewpoints buys into the notion that The Washington Post adequately provides a forum for a liberal viewpoint. Do you really believe that The Post has an over abundance of liberal viewpoints?

Tom Edsall: In fairness to the many inquiries about the Red State blogger, the questions you raise go to some basic issues of journalism that deserve much more expansive treatment and should get answers defining the principles guiding the Post as it engages with web. I could shoot my mouth off on these questions, but they should be answered by those with the power to set policy.

Do you really believe that The Post has an over abundance of liberal viewpoints?

Do you really believe it doesn't?

Update: Here's a link to my short post on the column's quick burial.

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Comments

[David Gerstman]

Welcome Back. If only for a short time.
In 2004 when I'd go the Washington Post website, I'd have John Kerry ads pop up; I never had a George W. Bush ad pop up. What does that tell you about the perception of the newspaper by each campaign!