Jan Freeman writes The Word column for Ideas.
Joshua Glenn is a Boston-based writer, editor, and multimedia
producer.
Christopher Shea writes the Critical Faculties column for Ideas.
 Send the Brainiac bloggers a
comment on a post.
  Week of:
November 11
Week of:
November 4
Week of:
October 28
Week of:
October 21
Week of:
October 14
Week of:
October 7
Mind the gap
Shop talk What he learned in the newsroom Mr. Boffo lays an eggcorn Curse of the mummy's tummy More in Word Watch  |
« Re: Baudrillard and 9/11 | Main | 9/11 and Baudrillard continued » Thursday, March 8, 2007Jim Lehrer in the middle laneYesterday I asked if anyone knew where Jim Lehrer stands politically. Lehrer's sideline from his gig as host of The Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS is to write novels, and it has recently been claimed that there are almost no conservative novelists. Now Jan has alerted me to the fact that Stephen Colbert has also wondered aloud about Lehrer's politics. Great news minds... In fact, Colbert went so far, in his version of the No Spin Zone, as to ask Lehrer rather insistently about it, as reported by a Web site devoted to sussing out liberal bias in the media. The site, NewsBusters, cites Lehrer's "liberal questions" in a Bush v. Gore debate, and scoffs at Lehrer's responses -- that he is "bias-free"; and that the flavor he brings to the news -- Colbert insisted there must be one -- is "a flavor of neutrality." Have to agree there. Colbert asked whether Lehrer indeed declines to vote, which is a rumor that has been bandied about. To the surprise of some, he said that he did vote sometimes, but didn't tell anyone about it. He added, in a strong rhetorical gesture for the quiet sage, "Is that a problem?" Posted by Evan Hughes at 04:39 PM
|
