Poynter on the Record

Reader R.K. "Dick" Fazzone of Potomac taunted me recently: "Deborah, every day, The Post continues to practice news journalism with a liberal political bias without comment from you, The Post's ombudsman." Okay, Dick, here I go into the lion's den.

During my first six months here, I heard more from liberal Democrats who complained that The Post was going easy on the Bush administration. In the past six months, it has shifted to Republicans claiming bias. Several readers also have mentioned remarks by former Post political reporter Tom Edsall, who in September said on a conservative talk show that most journalists he knew were liberal. ...

... Tom Rosenstiel, a former reporter who directs the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said, "I think there is a lot of liberal bias, and it's a serious problem -- much more than journalists realize. But the suspicion of many conservatives that journalists are consciously trying to help liberals or push a liberal agenda is manifestly not true. Most journalists want to be independent and have an ingrained professionalism. Journalists tend to think the liberal issue is phony, because they're trying to be fair. But unfairness exists, and too often it may not be perceived or detected." ...