Blinded by the Right?

Published Sep 24 2007, 03:12 PM by Adam Reilly

A few minutes ago, I got an email from Media Matters for America, the liberal media watchdog group, with this dramatic subject line: "REPORT: Massachusetts Op-Ed Pages Dominated by Right."

Can it be?!? Upon further inspection, maybe not. MMA's study only looks at syndicated columnists, which means that the Globe's generally liberal stable of in-house columnists count for nothing--as does the paper's generally liberal editorial page.

What makes this especially problematic is the Globe's status as New England's dominant media institution. Yeah, I guess it's noteworthy that Kathleen Parker and George Will are the top syndicated columnists in Massachusetts. But given MMA's inattentiveness to local voices and relative influence, I just can't get too worked up about their findings.

Incidentally, MMA says (syndicated) conservatives are ascendant everywhere. You can read more here.