Thursday, February 18, 2010

Top Liberal Journalists

Interesting list of the “Top 25 Liberal Journalists” from The Daily Beast.


Jessica Valenti - Feministing
David Rieff - NYTimes Magazine
Eric Alterman - Altercation
Deborah Solomon - NYTimes Magazine
Adam Moss - New York Magazine
Katrina Vanden Heuvel - The Nation
Matthew Yglesias - Think Progress
Christiane Amanpour - CNN
Jane Hamsher - Firedoglake
Franklin Foer - New Republic
Ezra Klein - Washington Post
Thom Hartmann - Radio Talk Host
Steve Coll - New Yorker
Josh Marshall - Talking Points Memo
Rachel Maddow - MSNBC
Jonathan Chait - New Republic
Hendrik Hertzberg - New Yorker
David Leonhardt - New York Times
Frank Rich - New York Times
Markos Moulitsas - Daily Kos
Fred Hiatt - Washington Post
David Shipley - New York Times
Arianna Huffington - Huff Post
Paul Krugman - New York Times
Jon Stewart - Daily Show


A little "New York" centric, No? Especially considering that The Nation and The New Republic are both published there.

But the first thing that jumps off the list is the inclusion of the neocon Fred Hiatt who helms the now conservative editorial pages at the Washington Post. An influential liberal??? Oh, but wait, the author protests, he is still liberal on domestic issues! Yeah, right. That's what they said about Joe Lieberman too.

And among the snubs and oversights is Keith Olbermann, whose success paved the way for Rachel Maddow.
Other egregious oversights include
Glenn Greenwald - Salon
Joe Conason - Salon
Thomas Frank - Wall Street Journal
Steve Benen - Washington Monthly
Duncan Black (Atrios) - Eschaton
Kevin Drum - Mother Jones
Andrew Sullivan - Daily Dish
Michael Kinsley - Washington Post
E.J. Dionne - Washington Post
And, since they left out anyone of color, how about:
Eugene Robinson - Washington Post
Bob Herbert - New York Times
Clarence Page - Chicago Tribune
and Leonard Pitts - Miami Herald

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Newspaper endorsements go unheeded by Repubs


What does this say about Republican voters?
So far, Kay Bailey Hutchison has swept the field on newspaper endorsements across the state.
All the major papers have endorse Hutchison, and yet she is trailing Gov. Rick Perry badly in the polls.
On the other hand, all the same papers also endorsed Bill White in the Democratic primary and he is leading in his primary race quite comfortably.
So does this mean that newspaper editorial boards have more influence today with Democratic voters rather than with Republicans?
I think so to a degree. But I also think that in general most people are less influenced today by newspapers in favor of other mediums such as TV, Internet, social media, billboards, mass mailings, robo-calls, etc.
Which is also one of the main reasons why I want to see a lot less so-called "democracy" in this country where we depend on uninformed and indifferent voters to select judges, constables, state board of education members and many other offices that would be better served by a system of appointments.