Jan 12, 2017

The New York Times has the dubious distinction of being one of the most Pulitzer-winning, widely-circulated, widely-read news organizations in the country that least understands the Red State mind.

They are now hiring a “faith and values” reporter. I may be jaded, but even the casting call for “faith and values” is wrong. The subtext is “we’re looking for a real live conservative Christian to report on stuff that conservative Christians care about.” If that’s what they mean, the text should say it. The fact that they don’t even know how to write the casting call demonstrates the problem.

Does NYT really lean left?

And yes, NYT leans left. Their own Daniel Okrent rightly says:

These are the social issues: gay rights, gun control, abortion and environmental regulation, among others. And if you think The Times plays it down the middle on any of them, you’ve been reading the paper with your eyes closed.

if you’re examining the paper’s coverage of these subjects from a perspective that is neither urban nor Northeastern nor culturally seen-it-all; if you are among the groups The Times treats as strange objects to be examined on a laboratory slide (devout Catholics, gun owners, Orthodox Jews, Texans); if your value system wouldn’t wear well on a composite New York Times journalist, then a walk through this paper can make you feel you’re traveling in a strange and forbidding world.

They may not be left enough for some of their readers, but that doesn’t mean they are not far left of center.

Like Google , Twitter, and Facebook NYT is perhaps feeling the need to slow down a gallop to the left and continue to reach out to the center-right nation they cover.