Editor&Publisher: Opinion Swings Left -- Will Syndicated Features Follow?

[DeepModem Mom]

Opinion Swings Left -- Will Syndicated Features Follow?
If last month's election results are any indication, America is becoming less conservative. So here are some underappreciated liberal columnists and cartoonists newspapers could publish if they want to add more variety to their pages.
By Dave Astor

NEW YORK (December 27, 2006) -- For E&P's upcoming January issue, I wrote a story noting that last month's election results haven't brought syndicates a surge in liberal feature sales. Most newspapers aren't significantly revising their column and cartoon lineups, despite a U.S. population that's seemingly growing less conservative.

In the column area, this status quo means conservative voices continue to outnumber liberal ones. Indeed, Cal Thomas of Tribune Media Services and George Will of the Washington Post Writers Group remain one-two in client totals (though many editorial cartoonists skew much less conservative).

But if any newspapers want to beef up their liberal lineups to match the (apparent) changing mood of the country, here's a sampling of excellent but underappreciated creators who would deserve more clients even if the political landscape hadn't shifted on Nov. 7.

Robert Koehler is a Tribune Media Services opinion columnist as eloquent as Ellen Goodman, Leonard Pitts Jr., or George Will. Starting in the spring of 2005, he became one of the few mainstream-media voices to periodically write about election problems, including voter suppression and the possible hacking of electronic voting machines. Also, he observed that these election problems almost always favored the GOP -- and may have helped George W. Bush retain the White House in 2004.

Koehler, who also has an articulate liberal voice when commenting on other subjects, is no longer quite so isolated in addressing election problems. Some U.S. dailies have joined him in looking more closely at these problems....

(NOTE: Astor's other suggestions are Ray Hanania, Khalil Bendib, Alison Bechdel and Jan Eliot.)

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/syndicate_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003525405

[madrchsod]

1. i doubt they will until they

understand liberal thinking people buy soap. remember freedom of the press is the freedom of the people who own the press to print what ever they want to. they do`t print unless someone pays the bills....

[SoCalDem]

3. And sadly, liberals are not likely to sit at their computers 24-7

firing off indignant, threatening emails to advertisers...like Brent "Bozo" Bozell and his ilk do.

Liberals will just go elsewhere for their news .

[NewJeffCT]

2. The powers behind the RW don't mind losing money

Sun Myung Moon has spent upwards of $3 billion of his own money in keeping the Washington Times runnings these past 25-30 years or so, not to mention UPI.

Fox News lost money for years as well for Murdoch.

I doubt Scaife is making money when he buys RW books in bulk or donates to RW "think" tanks.

These billionaires don't mind losing money as long as their agenda is advanced.