Raleigh News & Observer editor has a bias test

Raleigh News & Observer executive editor and blogger Melanie Sill continues to get readers’ complaints about liberal bias at the N&O.

Sill denies the paper's news columns contain bias:

People I meet often seem to think we make decisions on news based on politics, either overtly or unconsciously. Instead, our framework for pursuing news is based on journalistic questions.

Sill wants readers who see a N&O liberal bias to take a kind of test:

When I've spoken with others who share this perception, I've asked them to look at the paper for a few days as if they were on the other side.

As for any readers who might still see bias, Sill says:

If you're looking for evidence of bias, you can find it.

Despite Sill’s dismissive "If you’re looking for evidence of bias, you can find it," I hope readers will take Sill’s "the other side" test.

But first Sill should give us a clearer idea of what she means by looking from "the other side."

Does she mean political leanings left and right? What constitutes looking from "the other side" for those of us who are political independents or apolitical?

Will Sill accept readers' identification of bias based both on what the N&O reports and on what it fails to report? After all, what a newspaper fails to report can be an excellent indicator of its bias.

For example, on Aug. 5 the N&O ran a pg. 2, three- column, top of the page story with photo about a dustup conservative columnist Bob Novak and Democrat political operative James Carville had on CNN which resulted in Novak’s walking off the set, and subsequently being suspended by CNN.

I’ve no problem with the N&O running a story on the Novak/Carville dustup. It’s newsworthy.

But when I read the Novak/Carville story and also know the N&O has maintained for at least 10 days a news blackout on the loan scandal engulfing liberal talk-radio network Air America, I think about new bias.

If you’re familiar with the Air America scandal, you may want to skip the following paragraph. If you count on the N&O for your news, you may want to read it.

The Air America scandal is now in its 11th day. New York City’s Department of Investigation and New York State’s Attorney General are investigating how and why a community service agency, funded primarily with government grants and charged with serving poor children and the elderly, made unsecured loans to one of its board of directors, who at the time was also an owner of Air America . At least $875,000.00 in loans is involved. Investigators have determined some of the money was spent for personal items; the rest given to financially strapped Air America. New York City will no longer provide money to the community agency. That's forced it to suspend most of its services to some of the city’s poorest children and elderly in the Bronx. Air America has issued a number of statements but they've failed to answer important questions.

The scandal has been widely reported in all New York City newspapers except the liberal Times. For instance, here and here. National newspaper columnists have reported on it. Here’s Mark Steyn’s column. Blogger have reported, with Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey on top of the story every day. I just Googled “Air America loan scandal” and got more than 330,000 hits.

All of that, but not one word about the scandal in Raleigh’s liberal N&O.

Besides clarifying what she means by “the other side,” I hope Editor Sill will encourage readers to identify N&O bias not just by what the paper reports, but by what it leaves out.

I'm trackbacking to her post and e-mailing her this post.