Waxy recently wrote a script which labels blogs on Memeorandum red or blue based upon the linking behavior of the blogs. Blogs which are shown in blue link more to liberal blogs and, while there are some exceptions, tend to be more liberal. I also suspect that there might be greater polarization of linking now, at the height of a political campaign. I find that at times such as this I tend to deal more with the political campaign and link to blogs which support the same candidate. At other times I write more about issues and are more likely to discuss both liberal and conservative perspectives.
Patrick Ruffini, a conservative, points out what I had already noticed since installing the script. Media blogs tend to link more to liberal than conservative blogs and are highlighted in blue. Some are calling this evidence of bias in reporting, but miss the fact that these sites are blogs which include opinion as opposed to hard news. Even if this proved a liberal viewpoint editorially it says nothing about bias in the news sections.
All this really proves is that media blogs link more to liberal than to conservative blogs. There are reasons beyond ideological bias which could explain this. I wonder how far back these computations go back. If they include the period of the primary battles, liberal blogs would be expected to receive more links due to the Democratic race lasting longer and being of greater news interest.
A more likely reason is the difference between liberal and conservative thought. While there are irrational ideologues and rational writers on both sides, conservatives tend far more often to base their arguments on ideology as opposed to facts. Contemporary liberalism is far more pragmatic on the issues with viewpoints more likely to be based upon facts, while conservatives are prone to ignore whatever facts contradict their ideology. As Stephen Colbert put it, “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
In additon, during this election year conservatives have concentrated far more on unsubstantiated personal smears while liberal blogs are more likely to contain meaningful discussion of the issues, along with debunking of Republican smears. These factors make it far more likely that an objective journalist will find material worth linking to in liberal blogs than conservative blogs. Rather than crying media bias, conseratives might examine what it is in their writing, and thought process, which makes them less worthy of quoting.
