ONE BUILT WITH STRAW, THE OTHER WITH BRICKS:

Former Washington Post senior political reporter, Thomas Edsall, with an extremely candid look at mainstream media (The Hugh Hewitt Show, 9-21-06)

HH: Welcome to the program now Thomas Edsall, whose new book, Building Red America, has turned a lot of heads. He's got an article in the New Republic this week. I'm going to focus on the book. Thomas Edsall, welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show. [...]

HH: I know, but national politics. Local politics is different. I think it’s in the selection of stories, stories not pursued. I mean, right now, the canard is oh, I covered the impeachment of Bill Clinton, liberal Democrats who are newsroom types tell me. I say, well, you have to. That’s a story you can’t…it’s like not seeing the iceberg, and taking the Titanic down. But in the agenda setting stuff…let me approach it this way. Is there any big name political reporter, and you know them all, Thomas Edsall. That’s why your book, Building Red America, is getting read left and right. Are there any of them who are conservative?

TE: Big name political reporter?

HH: Right.

TE: Jim Vandehei of the Washington Post.

HH: Think he’s voted for Republicans for president?

TE: Yes, I think he has. I don’t know, because he’s never told me. But I would think he has.

HH: And so, of those sorts…and he’s a very fine reporter.

TE: He is.

HH: He probably is a Republican. But given that number of reporters out there, is it ten to one Democrat to Republican? Twenty to one Democrat to Republican?

TE: It’s probably in the range of 15-25:1 Democrat.

HH: Can the mainstream media ever be fair as a result?

TE: Well, you know, you’re asking, I think, a wrong question. I think the problem is that there is a real difficulty on the part of the mainstream media being sympathetic, or empathetic, whatever the word would be, to the kind of thinking that goes into conservative approaches to issues. I think the religious right has been treated as sort of an alien world…

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NEWSDAY UNION
DONATED TO POLS (AP, September 24, 2006)

The union representing Newsday's reporters and editors violated its own ethics by contributing money to politicians covered by the daily, the paper reported yesterday.