Also this issue:

Fan-tastic
For the past 20 years, a group of self-styled freedom fighters has been sneaking into the Vet.
-Daryl Gale

Exit the Unicorn
Einhorn's conviction is a sweet victory for those he's haunted for 25 years.
-Howard Altman

Fear of God and Taxes
-Mary F. Patel

Behind the Green Door
-Daniel Brook

Diverse Opinions
A Daily News award rankles critics.
-Deborah Bolling

Dueling Dooling
Newspaper Guild leaders differ on a new deal.
-D.B

"Rat" Infestation
-D.B

The Bell Curve
City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

October 24-30, 2002

on media

Can't Please Everybody

WEB SLight: InkyWatch.org lists the paper’s thought crimes.

The Inquirer's been accused of lots of things, but being too conservative may be a first.

by D.B

After years of being criticized by many for being too liberal, The Inquirer’s now hearing the opposite. Edward S. Herman, a longtime political activist and professor emeritus at the Wharton School of Business, says the paper’s editorial pages are downright conservative, and he’s launched a website, inkywatch.org, to prove it.

Portions of inkywatch.org's "Statement of Purpose" read as follows: "For some years now, The Philadelphia Inquirer has been responsive only to conservative, right-wing pressures in its editorial and news pages. ... Under [Editorial Page] editor Chris Satullo and Commentary editor John Timpane, the opinion page has been characterized by a steadily increasing degree of trivialization, and even more blatant kowtowing to the right, and further marginalization of the left. ...The Inquirer is not alone in needing a watchdog, but it needs one, badly. Inkywatch.org is intended to fill that need."

"They're not trying to establish the truth and that's unfortunate," he says. "Too often, they bury important stories deep in the newspaper. While they may not favor Mumia [Abu Jamal], when Amnesty International, an organization of the first rank, criticized the case, that story was in a three-inch box on page five."

Lil Swanson, Inky reader advocate and ombudswoman, says that she is surprised by the stand Herman has taken. For years she's been hearing the opposite complaint.

"For Mr. Herman to set up this website suggesting that the paper has been taken over by conservative thinking is such a surprise and a minority viewpoint," she says. "The steady drumbeat we've been hearing is going the other way."

Swanson says that to appease the newspaper's conservative readers, a column called "Right Stuff" runs weekly on the commentary page. In addition, conservative columnists like Linda Chavez and Charles Krauthammer are offset by liberals like E.J. Dionne.

"We established [the ŒRight Stuff' column] about two years ago to ensure that there's a conservative viewpoint in the paper," she says. "We had been hearing that there was no room for conservatives and that the commentary and editorial pages were far too liberal. We tried to address that. In America, anybody can build a website and say anything they want on it. Frankly, what I see on Mr. Herman's website runs counter to everything I've heard."