Right, righter, rightest

Editorial pages of mainstream newspapers are boring affairs. Is it just me? Most people automatically turn to the letters, as the editorials and op-eds are predictable, pompous, and heavily tilted right.

Most newspapers have glop of local luminaries, usually tilting towards business and academia, that form the “editorial board.” These people write the opinions on the left-hand side of the page.

Group constrictions usually mandate that the glop avoid extremes, and so the opinions are predictably either non-ideological or right-leaning. These opinions are unsigned, either the product of group consensus (yawn), or an outlier opinion. The latter will usually tilt right.

On the op-ed side, there is a stable of right-wing writers who grace every newspaper in the country. These range from George Will to Pat Buchanan to John Fund and Ann Coulter, and here in Denver, the local right-wing radio jock. These folks are usually unrestrained in their writings, as there is no natural force in our business or political culture acting as a damper on right-wing radicalism.

There is hardly any published voice on the “left” to counteract the extreme right wing extreme views that find their way into mainstream print. Editors feel little restraint on their right side, but on their left it’s a little different. There is a need for perceived “balance,” and so opinion page editors look for “reasonable” voices to represent the “other” point of view.

But it cannot be a lefty point of view. Usually, they settle on Ellen Goodman,

the mild-mannered Boston centrist. In American media, the right wing is allowed any offense or disposition, but the left must be polite. Otherwise, we are offensive.

I call it the “Goodman Line” – “this far, and no further”, as Captain Jean-luc Picard said of the Borg. In the mind of a typical opinion page editor, even Ellen is pushing some kind of “left-wing” agenda. They are that extreme, these editors … and yet, when we are mostly right wing extremists, does anyone notice? They are usually self-avowed “centrists.”

It is not a conspiracy, but rather by the power of money. It is no different than metal particles aligning themselves under a magnet. And it is not just the opinion page. All who work for a media small and large, colleges and universities, feel the force of the right-wing magnet.

Typically, an editor will say that there is an impenetrable wall between news and opinion, but as we all know, only lead can stop Superman’s x-ray vision. All editors feel power, no matter how pompously they parade their independence.

Poor old Gary Trudeau (Doonesbury), who tends to be critical of powerful people now and again, is usually relegated to opinion page where he is “balanced” by some lame-brained talking duck. Even the comic page guy knows about the magnet!

Wherever two people have lunch and talk about a third, there’s a conspiracy afoot. That’s been true since caveman days. Conspiracies are all about us, and are interesting and fun to ferret out. But they are not nearly so important as power itself.

We are not relegated to two right-wing parties and hundreds of right wing newspapers because of conspiracy. Our form is a result of our structure. We are allowed to legally bribe politicians, so that it naturally follows that politicians will serve moneyed interests. Since those moneyed interests are usually bent on wealth preservation and expansion, elimination of regulation, minimal taxes and access to the commons, they generally tend to be “right wing.” They are the magnet that controls the particles.

Newspaper owners and editors, radio and TV station managers are intrinsically aware of the magnets of money and power in the community. It all tilts right.

The only answer, if we really cherish freedom, is to take money out of politics and to foster and fund public broadcasting without corporate interference. Until such time, we will be a land of right wingers, half of whom imagine they are not.

In a land of no left there are only right, righter, and rightest.