News to some

It's an old piece -- never mind how I stumbled across it -- but the "public editor" of the New York Times asks "Is the New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?" His answer, "Of course it is."

It's worth reading in its entirety to see what exactly he means by this. It's not likely to satisfy the Times' harshest critics, but it should give supporters something to think about.

Ezra Klein might be right on this one

Interesting analysis of a recent Pew report on political polarisation. And by "interesting", I mean "supportive of a number of my pre-existing views, with a slightly new take and actual data".

I like the distinction between extreme views and polarised views, especially as someone who holds a few extreme views but in what I like to think is an eclectic mix (legalise drugs and free markets, expand immigration but crack down on those who've already violated immigration law, libertarian(ish) domestically but neo-conservative(ish) in foreign policy....).

I also like the fairly symmetric view of the world here. Polarisation is happening on both left and right. Democrats, Republicans, and their partisans spend a lot of time painting the other side as extreme where I see a fair amount of moderation of positions (albeit not in all areas) but both sides digging in more.