That Liberal Media

Kit Seelye is a truly horrible reporter. She should have been fired long ago for many many atrocious pieces. En banc takes a look at her "gay marriage poll" report and finds it totally slanted.

The biggest problem with Eric Alterman's "What Liberal Media?" book was that he, without doing much research, conceded the point that the media are more socially liberal than the population at large. In a broad sense this is probably correct, but it doesn't mean that the coverage of minority issues - particularly gay issues - reflects this bias at all. It's one thing to be "pro-gay" in some general clueless sense, and it's another to have any understanding of what the issues are. Combine this with the general tendency to bend over backwards to please Lou Sheldon, and media coverage of gay issues is absolutely atrocious.

The Howler has documented more Seelye atrocities.

There probably isn't much point, because as Jerry Doolittle notes the new Times ombudsman is just a bit of Grey Lady auto-eroticism, but if you're so inclined you can contact him at:

public@nytimes.com. Telephone messages: (212) 556-7652