From: gummitch@techbook.com (Jeff Frane)
Subject: Re: A journalist speaks on media bias
Organization: TECHbooks of Beaverton Oregon - Public Access Unix
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 21:15:10 GMT

rnlee@sdcc3.ucsd.edu (Profess'nal Agitator) writes:

>In article <1992Sep3.233719.28486@techbook.com> gummitch@techbook.com (Jeff Frane) writes:
>>Could you guys tell me where you live?  Every newspaper on the west
>>coast is pretty conservative.  Here in Portland, the Oregonian hasn't
>>endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate in many decades -- although
>>they might have a hard time going with Bushie this time.  The editorial
>>page is loaded with people like Will, Kilpatrick and the Oregonian's
>>resident right-wing creep. They even run an anti-enviromentalist
>>environmental column, and every once in a while they run one by a real
>>environmentalist.  They have one local columnist that many here would
>>probably call a "liberal".  That's it.

>Just because a paper chooses to run conservative columns (presumably
>in the name of "balance") doesn't mean it is conservative.  Take the
>LA Times for example.  The Oregonian announced at the beginning of the
>year that they would no longer use the names of the Atlanta Braves or
>Cleveland Indians (and this will probably or already has expand to the
>Washington Redskins, KC Chiefs, and many college teams) in print ever.
>Sounds like a real conservative position to me.

You can presume the Oregonian runs conservative columns for balance if
you want -- I'm sure that's their excuse.  The problem is they have a
peculiar idea of balance: heavy on the Right.  So, apparently, do you,
if the fact that the Oregonian chose to eschew a few team names
convinces you that the newspaper is "liberal".  That's quite a scale
you've developed!  If you don't think the editorial page (which reflects
the ideas of the editorial _board_) is an accurate reflection of the
paper's editorial bias, perhaps you could educate the rest of the world.
What happened to the fact that the Oregonian has consistently endorsed
conservative Republican presidential candidates for decades?  That has
nothing to do with their bias?


>>As far as liberal San Francisco goes, you ever hear of William Randolph
>>Hearst?

>Oh what a great example.  A dead man from the 40's.  Well, SF has
>changed a great deal since Hearst's time.  SF, Marin, and Alameda
>Counties are left-wing hotbeds.  They brought us leftist icons like
>Willie Brown, "Red" Ron Dellums, the very dead (hurrah) Phil Burton,
>and Barbara Bouncer.  And reflectings its community, the SF Chronicle
>is very left.

Excuuuuuuuuuse me, but I must have dropped the Jr from Hearst's name.
Hearst, _Jr._ is the editor in chief of the Hearst Newspapers (ring a
bell?).  I have in hand an editorial from January of this year in which
WRH _Jr._ explains that George Bush "risked his life to try to bring us
out of the recession" by taking his trip to Japan when he was very ill
(remember when he puked on the Japanese Prime Minister?).  But then,
that was an editorial and editorials don't count, do they?


>Left-wing papers on the "Left Coast":  LA Times, SF Chronicle,
>Oregonian, Sacramento Bee, the former San Diego Tribune, and probably
>the Seattle paper

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt. The Sacramento Bee?  Hee hee!  But I guess to some
people, anyone to the left of Pat Buchanan is a liberal.


>Compare name recognition with:  OC Register, LA Daily News, Sacramento
>Union, and the former San Diego Union.

>With the exception of the SD Union (which no longer exists), all the
>conservative papers are viewed as "second-string" counterparts.  The
>national media still treats OC as an LA "suburb gone wrong," although
>it is starting to come around.  Until recently, the Register was
>almost always mentioned in the same breath as the Manchester Union Leader.

Just out of curiosity, who views them as "second-string" -- and maybe
there's a reason why people think of such small-minded conservative
papers as lacking any vision.

Jeff Frane

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