Bruce Bartlett- a conservative Bush-hater, but a conservative nonetheless- comments on today's media:
In my view, the media did have a strong left-wing tilt for many years. But over the last 20 years or so, I think that has mostly disappeared. Major newspapers like the Post and New York Times are now fairly evenhanded in their news coverage. Their editorial pages are still pretty liberal, of course, but the Post in particular is far less liberal in its editorial positions than it was in the 1970s.I think he's just about right. There are way too many ideologues these days who are way too quick to scream "bias" at any piece of reporting that doesn't conform exactly to their preconceived agenda. Posted by Stephen Silver at March 16, 2007 06:29 PMIf, as I believe, the major media tilted left and have moved toward the center, then this means they moved to the right. It is this movement that the left has picked up on and is complaining about. But the idea that the media now tilt toward conservatives is absurd.
However, I do think that in some ways conservatives have become better at using the media, taking advantage of its institutional biases to spin stories in conservative directions. Contrary to what the left thinks, this is not something nefarious, but simply the application of good public-relations skills.