Opinion: Editors can combat claims of liberal bias in 6 easy steps
Editor’s note: This column is offered as a tongue-in-cheek guide for beleaguered newspaper editors and publishers who receive complaints of liberal bias in their publications.
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By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette
Monday, April 29, 2013 — I am always interested when I see newspaper editors and publishers defending their publications over allegations of liberal bias. As a print journalist (it says so on my degree, anyway) who has read and studied a great many such defenses, I have found the best ones share some common attributes.
To my comrades in print, I offer these six steps you might consider when writing your next defense of liberal bias. Let’s press on, shall we?
STEP 1. Open your column with a smarmy acknowledgement of emails and letters that have taken you to task for the newspaper’s liberal bias. Under no circumstances should you refer to the actual bias that ripples through your coverage of local stories and editorial decisions. We all know the drill — this can include giving left-wing ideology high play in stories, supporting every tax increase that comes along, condemning legislation that protects the unborn, decrying charter schools, etc. Always remember — the freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns the press (that’s us!).
STEP 2. Include in your column a statement that belittles those who claim to see this alleged liberal bias. Proper terms for this can include “tea-party zealot,” “tin-foil hat brigade,” “right-wing extremists,” and other terms as appropriate. You may be subtle or in-your-face, but feel empowered to express your creativity.
STEP 3. Extol the beauty of the Constitutional right to freedom of the press. Don’t forget to mention the newspaper’s public service role in a community. Play up this public service angle big-time, as most readers will fall for it. Never mention that we are also a for-profit business that makes money, and that we don’t give a damn about public service unless it helps the bottom line.
STEP 4. Point out the appearance of fairness the newspaper has afforded both political parties, their candidates and their issues. Mention that you run the legislative columns submitted by elected officials regardless of party affiliation. And don’t forget to point out that you gladly run political cartoons that skewer both parties (but mostly the Republican party, who everyone knows is the racist, homophobic “party of no”). Make note of the fact you also print letters to the editor from the tin-foil hat brigade — err — those Republicans and tea party groups. Hell, you even allow conservatives an opportunity to submit a column once in a while — how much more “fair and balanced” can you be?
STEP 5. Take the time to castigate readers critical of the newspaper, and suggest they must be living in an alternative reality. From here on to the end of your column, it is time to define these screwballs as the low-education morons they are. And mention again the public service nature of the newspaper business. Lay it on thick and heavy here, and leave readers so convinced of your fair-mindedness that they hear “Yankee Doodle Dandy” playing in their head by the time they finish reading your screed.
STEP 6. Wrap up your column by using an editor’s favorite writing style — smart-ass, subtle sarcasm. Who said column writing has to be boring? Isn’t this what you went to journalism school for? Relish this opportunity! The goal here is to leave the readers convinced of your fairness and that questions regarding the newspaper’s fairness are ridiculous and without merit.
Your liberal readers will read your column and understand you are only trying to cover your biased ass. The conservatives will be outraged (which is good), and it may prompt them to write letters laced with profanity (even better). You have the option of shit-canning these outright or hanging the best ones on your cubicle wall. After all, you can’t run letters from those foul-mouthed conservative wing-nuts who exceed your word limit, can you?
Don’t worry about the reader impact of your column. This isn’t to suggest everyone in your audience is as liberal — er, I mean “progressive” — as you, but thankfully, reading the local paper is a habit for baby boomers.
At worst, your column will prompt readers to reflect on the time years ago when the paper’s political leanings were more fair and less biased. Let them have their “those-were-the-days” moment while we continue to rake in the dough. We can continue to physically shrink the newspaper; increase the number of ads while reducing the size of the news hole and cut out content we once covered — and in the end, it doesn’t matter. The age of our average reader is nearly 60, and this demographic will continue to subscribe until the day they die. By then, we’ll either have a new business model or Congress will approve government subsidies to protect our industry from complete extinction.
See how easy it is? You can turn those hateful diatribes waving claims of liberal bias in your face into a rallying cry for reader support. Its called “spin” my friends, and its a tool every progressive (i.e. liberal) editor must strive to use effectively.
Class dismissed.
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