New York Times Sound Off: A Double Standard for ‘Conservative’ and ‘Liberal’ Labels?, by Patrick Healy:

Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston, reached out after he was described as “conservative” in two Times articles within 24 hours. He said the label was accurate, but argued that The Times applied such labels inconsistently to academics and analysts — using “conservative” far more. He did his own digging into our usage; so did we, and he had a good point. I asked him to talk it through.

Following is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. …

JOSH: … I went through the Westlaw archives and just sort of searched for “liberal” law professors and “conservative” law professors in the New York Times database, and it was far more likely that you’re identifying a conservative than a liberal. And those numbers are stacked because liberals are quoted even more often. So the numbers even have a greater disparity.

And this sort of reinforces, I think, a perception that both the academy and frankly the media views a liberal position as a neutral position. And the conservative position is the other, the outlier. And that’s why you have to have this sort of nomenclature, this sort of adjective to describe it. …

PATRICK: Yeah. Josh, I think there’s real truth to your critique and it’s something we need to do a better job on. … I do really think you’re right. It can come off like The Times treats liberals as normal and conservatives as unique and worthy of labeling. In the legal academy, there are a lot of liberals, but that doesn’t justify it. I think we need to be more discerning about it.

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Kudos to the New York Times: The Newspaper Acknowledges a Source’s Criticism, by James Freeman:

This column sometimes notes the shortcomings of the New York Times so it seems only fair to credit the Gray Lady when she gets it right. With refreshing humility and openness to constructive criticism, a Times editor considers the manner in which the newspaper addresses a speaker’s point of view. … Kudos to Patrick Healy. Let’s hope that people across the media industry will take Josh Blackman’s criticism to heart.

Josh Blackman (South Texas), NYT Interviews Me About “A Double Standard For ‘Conservative’ and ‘Liberal’ Labels?

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