Media Matters releases report on Op-Ed pages of daily newspapers…Toledo Blade 50/50
The report which focuses on Op-Ed pages of daily newspapers nationwide and on a state by state basis states that there is more of a conservative view presented, with rare exception. The Blade scored 50% Conservative and 50% Progressive:
A full listing of the daily newspapers in Ohio can be found here and if you want to read the full report, visit here for the summary and here for the pdf of the report for the whole nation. Some interesting items from the report:
* In Ohio, there are 84 daily newspapers with a total circulation of 2,257,887.
* Conservative syndicated columnists appear a total of 200 times per week in Ohio newspapers. Centrist columnists appear a total of 40 times, while progressive columnists appear a total of 95 times.
* Taking newspaper circulation into account, these columnists have the potential to reach Ohio readers a total of 13,664,919 times each week.
* Nationally syndicated conservative columnists account for 45 percent of the column impressions in Ohio, while nationally syndicated progressive columnists account for only 39 percent of the column impressions.
* Those conservative columnists reach Ohio readers 833,207 more times than their progressive counterparts.
* The top nationally syndicated columnists published regularly in Ohio consist of seven conservatives, one centrist, and three progressives.
I have to say with in looking at the fact that the top three newspapers in Ohio, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Columbus Dispatch and the Cincinnati Enquirer all showing that they are more Progressive than Conservative, I have a hard time understanding how it’s said there is more of a conservative voice overall. It’s clear with the per impressions if most of the papers use the same conservative op ed writers that they would have a large base of access but it’s also obvious that the op ed writers from the Plain Dealer as one example, that scored more progressive has a larger readership than the more conservative News Herald.
September 24th, 2007 at 6:50 pmProgressive is in and Liberal is out I take it? Ohh, I know that word progressive has been around the last few years as a result of the L word being radioactive….
September 24th, 2007 at 7:55 pmTo me, Parker is more toward the Liberal side. I agree with Dave. The L word must be radioactive to them, so Progressive is their new moniker. And if the Blade editorials were ever analyzed, they’d be judged as Liberal, even Socialstic.
September 24th, 2007 at 9:07 pmNope, it’s not about a word being radioactive. It’s about a difference in approach. Maybe this will help: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/whats-the-difference-bet_b_9140.html
September 24th, 2007 at 9:14 pmThanks Lily, I was starting to think of a way to respond when I linked to Sirota’s article. He says it better than I could. I never thought of Claremce Page as a progressive.Interesting post.
September 25th, 2007 at 2:13 amIt doesnt take into account how often their columns run does it? Dan Rather is “centrist?” OK.
Media Matters is nothing more than an arm of the DNC / Clinton machine.
September 25th, 2007 at 1:51 pmOf course, if I read it correctly, this only looks at the Op-Ed pieces – not the actually editorials of the individual paper’s board…Can’t help but wonder what the results would be if those were taken into account as well…
September 25th, 2007 at 1:59 pmRight on, Ben Keeler – you have to take info from websites like Media Matters with a grain of salt. My liberal (excuse me, “progressive”
friends like to use that website as their online Bible. If the Drudge Report website were to examine the same thing, you might find a difference in the information provided 
September 25th, 2007 at 2:22 pm