Letter writer Helen Lowery’s contention of a liberal media bias is just not credible (“Reporters’ political preference obvious,” Aug. 21). She says that “Democrats are allowed to do and say whatever helps them politically,” and then she turns around and does the same thing. She faults Sen. John Kerry for saying that President Bush has blocked the importation of affordable prescription drugs by implying that Bush would allow them if approved by the FDA. What she fails to mention is that the current head of the FDA, Max McClellan, is a Bush appointee. Isn’t it reasonable to think that Dr. McClellan, who serves at the pleasure of the president, might be more than a little reluctant to take a position counter to his boss in the White House?
Ms. Lowery goes on to invite us to read our local papers to prove a double-standard and bias in the media. I’ve taken her challenge. I’ve pulled the editorial pages of The Herald for the past few days and seen syndicated columns by Bill O’Reilly (angry right wing Fox News ideologue), David Broder (endangered moderate conservative), George Will (boring and somewhat dim conservative ideologue – at least O’Reilly is entertaining), Charles Krauthammer (snobby Washington Post elitist conservative). In fairness, I did see an editorial by someone named Froma Harrop (which I could not characterize as liberal or conservative, although being in favor of reading might put her in the progressive camp), and Debra Saunders (which I also could not characterize, although she seemed to be having a good time criticizing New Jersey Democrats).
My sample was small, but I could not locate a single progressive column in the Herald within the last week. My apologies, Ms. Lowery may have a point about media bias after all.
Donald McKim
Lynnwood
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