It's Unanimous: All Dem-Friendly Stories This Morning at The Politico

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

The bold and brilliant Hugh Hewitt doesn't hesitate to ask reporters appearing as guests on his radio show to describe their personal political leanings. Most decline to do so in a self-righteous huff, the typical response being along the lines "that is irrelevant to my reporting, which I play down the middle." There are rare-but-welcome bursts of candor, as when former WaPo political reporter Tom Edsall famously acknowledged to Hugh that he, along with the overwhelmingly majority of his erstwhile WaPo confreres, were indeed Dems and liberals.

I mention this because a few weeks ago, Hugh had as a guest John Harris, one of the founding members of the Politico, the new web-based venture that draws many of its reporters from the ranks of some of the leading MSM institutions. Harris, for example, is the WaPo's former political editor. Hugh posed the who-did-you-vote-for question, and Harris demurred along the lines cited above. After the interview, Hewitt said he suspected that Harris and the rest of the Politco crew were indeed libs. Nevertheless, Hewitt seems to appreciate the Politico's lively and topical reporting. With that as an endorsement, I decided to sign up for the Politco's Daily Digest email, and have been reading and largely enjoying it ever since.

But there are signs that Hewitt's suspicions as to the political leanings of the website's crew are well-founded. Take the stories that turned up this morning in the Politico's Daily Digest email. Every single one was Dem-friendly , or the bearer of ill tidings for Republicans:

• White House Seeking Gonzales Replacements: Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff could replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, GOP officials say.
• The New Climate Change Politics: Environmental concern hits home in states with early presidential contests. First para: "The 2008 presidential campaign will mark a coming of age for the issue of global warming. Just two election cycles after President Bush questioned whether it was a real phenomenon, global warming will be a premier topic that all candidates agree needs urgent attention.
• Pelosi Plays Hardball: Pelosi lays down the law, telling Dems Vote for wartime spending bill or give Bush exactly what he wants. Strong leader, that Nancy!
• Corporations Amp Up Giving to Democrats: Cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds must be gasping for air, given its race to get contribution checks delivered to newly empowered Capitol Hill Democrats.

Now, I can already hear the response from the Politico: this is just the luck of the draw. Other mornings' headlines are more fair & balanced, and anyhow, there's no denying a trend toward the Dems; witness the last elections. All true, I suppose. Even so, it's hard to imagine Republicans ever enjoying such a clean sweep at the site. We'll see. Not to say that thePolitico is a hard-left operation. It palpably is not. And it certainly provides lots of useful and entertaining information about politics. I intend to keep reading. But one can't help sensing that, by and large, it sees things through an inside-the-beltway, center-left prism.

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[governsleastgovernsbest]

The-Politico ping to Today show list.

[iopscusa]

What would one expect from another Lying Lib politics rag...just what the world needed.
May they lose their shirts.

[Bahbah]

The Politico was created to help guide the country in the correct direction for the next election...which is to the left. That is its purpose. They are a smart bunch and I think they are going to be pretty good at executing their plan.

The writing is good and they are insiders with access to information. They will build trust and gain readership. They are dangerous.

[6SJ7]

The Dems idea of the Fairness Doctrine; all liberals, all the time.

[BurtSB]

Like I said a wash compost internet service meant to help the Dems in 2008 . I suspected partly funded by soros .
mike allen and the rest trashed george allen for two years !

[Jack Black]

Meanwhile CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" had a segment last night that noted the 4th Anniversary of the war. To review progress a series of bar graphs with three critical measures of success were shown: dead American soldiers, Bush's approval rating, and the pice of Haliburton stock.

I sat there dumbstruck. Is Huffington Post the new editor of prime-time CNN news? It was straight out of the fever swamps to the little screen. Amazing.

I turned off the boob tube and came to check out FR where there were pictures of antiwar protesters burning flags and effegies of soldiers.

Yea Gads! We're in bad shape.

[Beckwith]

What were you doing watching CNN in the first place?

[chimera]

Hard to believe it's just "the luck of the draw". What was that one survey in the '06 election cycle that showed something like 88% of the stories in the MSM were either anti-Republican or pro-'Rat? I remember when O'Reilley or Hannity asked a reporter or MSM rep about this and their answer was something like "Well, the Republicans *deserve* negative coverage!". Yep, really fair and unbiased, that.

[showme_the_Glory]

Hewitt fawning over Romney and now Politico. I can barely listen to him ant more.

[Hawthorn]

No less an authority than Thomas Edsall (a self-confessed leftwing newsman) said on Hugh Hewitt's show that Politico's co-founder and executive editor, Jim VandeHei, is a closet conservative.

But it's now clear that the other big wigs at Politico are down-the-line leftwingers.