“I know many readers, particularly liberals, feel we have too many conservative voices on the page. On the other hand, I hear from a lot of conservative readers who think we have too many people they consider too liberal (Dionne, Robinson, Meyerson, Marcus, et al.). We try to provide a range of views–no matter who is in power” – Fred Hiatt, Washington Post Editorial Page Editor, October 14, 2009.
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The Washington Post published a total of 8 Op-Eds and opinion columns today, from these individuals:
* Former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey (bashing Obama for wanting to try 9/11 defendants in an actual court)
* Neocon Charles Krauthammer (heralding the resurgent GOP fueled by “Obama’s hubristic expansion of government, taxation, spending and debt”)
* Newt Gingrich and GOP Texas Gov. Rick Perry (Obama’s health care plan would destroy America)
* Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson (Obama has lost the American center and his health care plan will destroy Democrats)
* Conservative economist Martin Feldstein, former chief economic adviser to Reagan (“Obamacare” will raise premiums and increase the number of uninsured)
* Honduran coup defender Edward Schumacher-Matos (blaming Honduras’ democratically elected President for ”instigating mob rule” and criticizing both the American Right and Left for “extremism,” while defending the administration-backed compromise)
* CEO of BP (British Petroluem) Tony Hayward (dismissing efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption as “simplistic” and advocating changes to cap-and-trade bill that would benefit BP)
* Liberal Eugene Robinson (warning of the takeover of the GOP by the intolerant, ideological Right)
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So, to re-cap: The Post today has two former Bush officials, one former Reagan official, two right-wing politicians, a Fox News neocon, the CEO of America’s largest oil and gas producer, a defender of the right-wing Honduran military coup leaders, and one liberal columnist. That overwhelming right-wing presence on the Post Op-Ed page is anything but unusual (the day after it fired Dan Froomkin, The Post published Paul Wolfowitz, Michael Hayden, Charles Krauthammer and an Iran-hawkish screed from David Ignatnius, preceded by Glenn Beck, Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan, and Ramesh Ponnuru). And that’s to say nothing of the always-pro-war Editorial Page itself, which typically advocates for those same positions.
The Post is obviously free to publish whatever it wants, but, wth some very rare exceptions, its Op-Ed page under Fred Hiatt now really is the leading outlet for neoconservatve and related right-wing advocacy. It is one of those outlets typically counted as part of the “Liberal Media” by right-wing self-victimizers and their media amplifiers, yet The Post‘s claimed devotion to airing a “wide range of views” is scarcely more credible than Fox News’ “fair and balanced” slogan.
