In making a big deal out of Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell’s claim that most editorial cartoonists are liberal, Matthew Sheffield claimed in a Sept. 28 NewsBusters post that “Just two of the top twenty editorial pages in the U.S. lean conservative,” and offered a list. Sheffield offered no evidence to back up his assertion — and indeed, there are problems with his list. For instance:
- He claims the Chicago Tribune is “liberal,” even though it has endorsed only Republican presidential candidates for the past 130 years or so.
- He claims the Washington Post is “liberal” even though it has often shared editorial positions with the “conservative” Wall Street Journal.
While it may be treated as a given inside the MRC offices that everyone in the media is liberal, out here in the real world, we require evidence, and not the circumstantial kind.