The Liberal Media

[Joanne98]

Glenn Greenwald points to this Atlantic 50 listing, composed of:

the <50> most influential commentators in the nation, the columnists and bloggers and broadcast pundits who shape the national debates....Our in-house methodology...:

* Influence: A survey of more than 250 Washington insiders...

* Reach: Comprehensive data collection and analysis to measure the total audience of each commentator

* Web Engagement: ...the Wire analyzed top commentators on 16 measures of webiness, including mentions on Twitter and performance on popular social media sites like Digg and Delicious

The final list is the result of an algorithm that brings together these three factors.

Seven of the top ten are Reichwing pundits, two liberal, and the last is Andrew Sullivan.

Paul Krugman is 1st, but Glenn Greenwald is 22nd, Josh Marshall is 29th, and Bill Moyers 32nd. In contrast, Limbaugh, Will, Friedman, Brooks, Krauthammer and Beck are 2-7. Rove, Hannity, Broder and Noonan are 10-13. Rachel Maddow and Arianna Huffington are 14 and 15. And so on in each group of ten making up the top fifty.

Unexplained is the weighting among ephemera such as Twitter hits and "performance" on popular social media sites, and substance or how frequently commentators are proven correct/incorrect. The "top 250" Washington insiders surely listed those to whom they owed allegiance, as self-referential a criteria as one could use.

The list is overwhelmingly rightwing to in extremis. The Atlantic could have saved itself a lot of trouble and algorithms by calling these the Village Fifty. It's what they came up with. So much for "liberal" as a descriptor of today's media

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/8204

1. Paul Krugman 2. Rush Limbaugh 3. George Will 4. Thomas Friedman 5. David Brooks 6. Charles Krauthammer 7. Glenn Beck 8. Frank Rich 9. Andrew Sullivan 10. Karl Rove 11. Sean Hannity 12. David Broder 13. Peggy Noonan 14. Rachel Maddow 15. Arianna Huffington 16. Fareed Zakaria 17. Maureen Dowd 18. E.J. Dionne 19. Bill O'Reilly 20. Keith Olbermann 21. Kathleen Parker 22. Glenn Greenwald 23. Nicholas Kristof 24. William Kristol 25. Robert Samuelson 26. Dick Morris 27. Eugene Robinson 28. David Ignatius 29. Josh Marshall 30. Mark Levin 31. Holman Jenkins 32. Bill Moyers 33. Richard Cohen 34. Jonah Goldberg 35. Gail Collins 36. Ruth Marcus 37. Steven Pearlstein 38. Joe Klein 39. Anne Applebaum 40. Michael Kinsley 41. Matthew Yglesias 42. Joe Nocera 43. Ronald Brownstein 44. Steve Benen 45. Lou Dobbs 46. Bret Stephens 47. Kimberley Strassel 48. Harold Meyerson 49. Ezra Klein 50. Hendrik Hertzberg

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/people/index/selected/all

[Ron Green]

1. The idea that Bill Moyers is #32 and Genn Beck is #7

makes me want to take heroin and give up on my life.

[NewJeffCT]

2. I agree with your sentiment there

what a shame.

[blm]

3. How did this list look from 2000-2006? Way worse. Some of left listed now were still unknowns back

then.

[NewJeffCT]

4. Two liberals, one center-right (Sullivan) and seven far right

in the top 10.

Interesting that Rachel beats out Keith, though.

[DCKit]

5. Keith is smart, but Rachel is *scary* smart - and far less emotional in her delivery. n/t

[Winterblues]

6. Paul Krugman beats out Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and O'Really

I bet that frosts their ass something fierce..:evilgrin:

[lysosome]

7. Limbaugh and Beck have only HS education. Wonder how many other RWs have no better?