A Smack to the Head of the Foreign Minister

To add insult to injury, Greg, I am typing this while sitting in a mansion atop Wintergreen Mountain.

The esteemed foreign minister pointed to the fact that Michael Moore was hired to comment on the Republican Convention by USA Today as proof that there is a left-wing bias in the media.

USA Today also had a guest commentator for the Democratic Convention: Ann "My acquaintance with the truth is only slightly less than Michael Moore's" Coulter. Is this proof of the right-wing bias of the media?

Of course not. It's proof that the media is also a business. Moore and Coulter were guaranteed to write inflammatory briefs about their avowed enemies, making good copy, and, not incidentally, selling newspapers.

But don't expect the right to admit the relative fairness of the newsrooms (as opposed to editorial boards) anytime soon. Decrying the bias of the left is easier to accomplish than dealing with the vast grey area in politics uncovered by in-depth articles. The disconnect between conservatism-for-the-masses* and the messy nature of reality does favor conservatism in less erudite contexts. "God good and gov'mint bad" plays well in the black and white world of talk radio and Limbaugh country. Things aren't so clear when you explore the depths, and even "nuances" of problems facing our country.

* I explicitly exclude thoughtful conservatives like George Will et al. from this generalization; there is a compelling intellectual argument for conservatism that can, and is made, by the chattering classes. This intellectual conservatism doesn't win elections.