The Right to Publish

Media Matters has a study out that shows that syndicated conservative columnists get a lot more space than liberals do in newspapers across the country. For example:

- Sixty percent of the nation's daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists every week than progressive syndicated columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives, while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced.

- In a given week, nationally syndicated progressive columnists are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of 125 million. Conservative columnists, on the other hand, are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of more than 152 million.

I'm guessing the reason publishers choose to run more right-wingers is two-fold: they are more likely to get bellicose and ranting letters from righties in the "Letters to the Editor" column and this is one way to feed the beast. Also, it's possible that newspaper publishers actually prefer to publish people like Cal Thomas and Jonah Goldberg. So much for the "liberal media."