That Liberal Media

Dan Okrent answers the question of whether or not the New York Times is a liberal paper: "Of course it is." Money lines:

Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. doesn't think this walk through The Times is a tour of liberalism. He prefers to call the paper's viewpoint "urban." He says that the tumultuous, polyglot metropolitan environment The Times occupies means "We're less easily shocked," and that the paper reflects "a value system that recognizes the power of flexibility."

He's right; living in New York makes a lot of people think that way, and a lot of people who think that way find their way to New York (me, for one). The Times has chosen to be an unashamed product of the city whose name it bears, a condition magnified by the been-there-done-that irony afflicting too many journalists. Articles containing the word "postmodern" have appeared in The Times an average of four times a week this year - true fact! - and if that doesn't reflect a Manhattan sensibility, I'm Noam Chomsky.

Good for Okrent. The Times doesn't have to pretend to be something that it's not. He goes on to argue that Times reporters need to make more of an effort to reach beyond the "urban sensibilities" of their "co-religionists," and he's right about that too.