1115.org

Eric Alterman:

OK. One last thing about [Joe] Klein. The politicians he claims to admire in this book are [John] McCain, Rudy [Guiliani], and Chuck Hagel. Last week he wrote a mash note to Newt Gingrich. All are Republicans. And yet in the Media Matters study of the Sunday shows about which I wrote here, Klein was coded “progressive.” I understand that they were extra careful about coding so as to make their argument air tight. And I think they were right to be so. But when you add up the idea that it is necessary to pretend Klein is a progressive and add in the fact that [Mike] Tomasky felt compelled to term the Washington Post editorial page “liberal” when he did his study at the Shorenstein Center, the very idea that anyone could seriously argue that the mainstream media are liberally biased makes me want to shoot someone (accidentally, of course), in the face.