E Pluribus Unum

Ken at Lying in Ponds has completed his yearly review of partisanship in the media. This year (as in years past) Ann Coulter and Paul Krugman took the top two spots. The rest of the top ten is about evenly split between GOP and Dem partisans. You can see the entire list here.

If you're a math geek, you might find his methodology interesting, but it misses (I think) an important dimension. The author's methodology doesn't have a way of measuring the truth and accuracy of a pundit's columns -- only the number of times he speaks highly of a Democrat or a Republican. Ken stipulates this right at the top:

The methods used here are an attempt to quantify only partisanship, and are not intended as a more general guide to the quality of a columnist. There are other important traits such as accuracy, relevance, fairness, civility and style, but Lying in Ponds makes no attempt to measure them.

In other words, if Paul Krugman says 100 negative things about Bush that are, ahem, true and Coulter says 100 negative things about Clinton that are a flight of deranged and vitriolic fancy, well then, they're both judged equally partisan. Oh well.

But, for fun, let's stipulate that all of Ann Coulter's columns are truthful and accurate. Is it really a bad thing for her to rant against liberals every day for the rest of her life? At least you know where she (and President Bush) stand on the issues that are important to conservatives.

Same goes for Krugman: if he uses well-established statistical analyses to blow apart the President's Social Insecurity initiative, why on earth is it a bad thing for him to point out those flaws every day?

In my mind, partisan pundits serve a useful purpose -- they define the length and breadth of the playing field. What makes them great is the thought that goes into their explanation of the issues, not that they skewer both sides on alternate Fridays.

But most people reject this concept of partisanship. I think it's because they don't want to have to read both Coulter and Krugman to see the whole field. To put it bluntly, most people are lazy.

So, hat's off to Coulter and Krugman -- they serve the national interest.

P.S. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I'm proud to call myself a Yellow Dog Democrat.