They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

The slow death of the San Diego Union-Tribune now has progressed into a collapse. Kind of like Lehman Brothers or AIG as the paper has bought out it's most respected columnists and writers in order to reduce overhead and expenses. It has also closed its D.C. bureau after almost 65 years in operation.

So what's next? If the paper is bought out then what will happen to reporting in San Diego? Love it or hate it (I mostly hated it, I mean the front page was just wire service stories and maybe one good story a month) it was a major news organization and all of the electronic media took its lead from the paper. (Which speaks volumes on the quality of local news in San Diego.)

Should this be seen as a good sign that possibly a balanced media could come to San Diego?

Or just more of the same, only this time with more Fry's ads.

Maybe, the UT is not so Conservative?

A week ago last Wednesday, Media Matters for America a progressive media watchdog published a report on the political balance of op-ed pages for the nation's newspapers.[Link] According to the summary of the report "Conservative syndicated columnists reach millions more than progressive columnists." That sixty percent of the nation's newspapers print more conservative columnist every week than they do progressive columnists.[Link] According to Media Matters, however, their own research shows that the Union-Tribune has more centrist columnists than they have either conservative or progressive columnists on their op-ed pages.[Link]

Now, I'm not one to quibble with the research that Media Matters has done regarding op-ed pages, but I can tell you that when it comes to covering local stories pertaining to any number of progressive issues, the UT has a decisive conservative slant. Don't believe me, then ask any number of local Democratic candidates who have sat down with the editorial board regarding endorsements.