NPR reporter Nina Totenberg and Newsweek editor Evan Thomas bicker over the “liberal” label:

Evan Thomas: Can I ask, is this going to, is this attack going to make NPR a little less liberal?

Nina Totenberg: I don’t think we’re liberal to begin with and I think if you would listen, Evan, you would know that.

Thomas: I do listen to you and you’re not that liberal, but you’re a little bit liberal.

Totenberg: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s a fair criticism, I really don’t — any more than, any more than you would say that Newsweek is liberal.

Thomas: I think Newsweek is a little liberal.

Hey, at least Thomas is honest.

Speaking of honesty, the New York Times is once again admitting that it knows what it is. In a recent memo to Times staffers (PDF file, 10 pages), editor Bill Keller wrote:

[D]iversifying the range of viewpoints reported — and understood — in our pages is not mainly a matter of hiring a more diverse work force. It calls for a concerted effort by all of us to stretch beyond our predominantly urban, culturally liberal orientation, to cover the full range of our national conversation.

That would be a nice trick, if the Times can pull it off. Either way, it’s a good sign that the Times is thinking in such terms.

Five years ago, you never would have heard such admissions of bias coming straight from the mouths of the establishment media elites. We’ve come a long way...