Ezra noted yesterday that [tag]Time[/tag] magazine has expanded its growing blog presence by adding another political site to its mix. Take a wild guess where it falls on the ideological spectrum.
[tag]Real Clear Politics[/tag] has entered a content deal with Time magazine, and will now have their blog hosted on Time’s servers. “TIME.com hosts a diverse chorus of political voices,” said Josh Tyrangiel, the editor, “and we’re excited to add the Real Clear Politics blog to the mix.”
Except that’s not true. Real Clear Politics is an unabashedly conservative site. It’s a very, very good one, and there’s no conservative commentary I prefer to read, but it’s happily and totally right-of-center.
And, unfortunately, there’s no counterbalance.
Real Clear Politics will be Time’s third political blog, and its seventh blog overall. RCP joins Andrew Sullivan (conservative), Mike Allen (non-ideological political reporter), and one blog each on the subjects of science, international health, medicine, and television.
Just to be clear, RCP is an excellent site, and I don’t begrudge Time for picking it up. Moreover, all of Time’s blogs are strong sites with top-notch content, and the magazine deserves credit for embracing the medium so enthusiastically. But if you have three political blogs, and two are conservative while the other is non-partisan, it’s not really “a diverse chorus of political voices.”
Unfortunately, it’s something of a recent trend.
* CNN’s three most recent additions to the network’s political coverage are former Republican congressman J.C. Watts, moralist Bill Bennett, and far-right radio host Glenn Beck, all conservatives. There are no comparably liberal correspondents on the network.
* The Washington Post hired Ben Domenech, a hardline conservative who used to work for Bush, as an official blogger for the paper. Though Domenech was ultimately forced to resign, the Post was prepared to go with having a blog line-up featuring someone on the far-right and no one on the left.
* When producers book guests for the Sunday-morning news shows, on every network, they’ve allowed conservative voices to dominate for a decade.
Of course, Time could help bring some additional balance to its line-up by hiring a hard-working, experienced progressive blogger like … I don’t know … me? Time, my door is always open to you.