In the never-ending contest for the minds (and votes) of those who still
bother to think and vote, the disagreement over which side has the greatest
influence in the media goes on, seemingly without end.
The latest salvo comes from the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters,
whose president, David Brock, once claimed to have been "Blinded by the
Right," but now says he has perfect liberal vision.
Media Matters says it has surveyed 96 percent of American newspapers and
found that 60 percent of them "print more conservative syndicated
columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives,
while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced." It also claims that,
"nationally syndicated progressive columnists are published in newspapers
with a combined circulation of 125 million" while "conservative columnists
are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of more than
152 million." The organization's count is based on newspapers that carry
columnists once a week, or at least once a month, which not all newspapers
do.
Using that standard, George Will and I were named the top two columnists by
number of newspapers. Both of us were undercounted. More than 500 newspapers
subscribe to this column. Most are dailies and a few are weeklies. Media
Matters claims just 306 carry mine (it says 328 carry Will's), ignoring the
real numbers by imposing the weekly or monthly frequency standard. Media
Matters also apparently didn't count overseas newspapers or USA Today,
America's largest circulation newspaper, in which I co-author a column twice
monthly with my liberal friend, Bob Beckel. Media Matters asked for my
client list to prove my claim. Nice try. Liberals would love to have such a
list so they can conduct letter-writing campaigns to remove conservatives,
in the name of tolerance, of course. While some columnists have been
"rumored" to inflate their numbers (imagine that!), mine are accurate and
have been since I started writing this column.
Numbers aside, the survey suggests that too many conservative ideas unduly
influence readers. This apparently keeps the brainless robots from their
natural state: liberalism. The number of liberal readers who have written
and told me of their conversion to conservatism after reading my arguments
is small. Most liberals who write to me question the legitimacy of my birth,
disparage my looks, pledge a campaign to censor me and promise never to read
the column again. They do. They can't help themselves.