Demagogue

Conservatives spend a lot of time howling about how liberal the news media supposedly is. Well, consider this. Last week, California voters rejected four ballot initiatives that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had campaigned in favor of. The four initiatives were:

Proposition 74 -- Delay teacher tenure 3 years
Proposition 75 -- Require unions to get signed permission slips from members to use dues for political/legislative activities
Proposition 76 -- Grant governor new powers over the state budget
Proposition 77 -- Remove legislature's ability to redraw state and congressional districts

Were the state's largest daily newspapers to the left or right of the voters? I examined the editorial positions taken on these 4 Props by the following major California newspapers: Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Orange County Register, San Diego Union-Tribune, San Jose Mercury News and Sacramento Bee.

We're talking about 6 newspapers, and each one of them took a position on all 4 of the Schwarzenegger-backed Props. So, in all, there were 24 instances in which these newspapers urged either a "yes" or "no" vote. (A "yes" position was in sync with the governor, and a "no" was in sync with the voters.)

The final tally? By a 17-7 margin, these major California newspapers urged "yes" votes. The Sacramento Bee was the only newspaper to oppose all four props. So much for the liberal media.