Conservatives are usually the first to complain about the media’s ideological bias — and their narrative on the topic is very strong. Witness, for example, the way the media embraced Barack Obama’s presidential campaign; his self-created autobiographical description as a high-minded reformer.

Another example: as the health care debate progresses, reporters and news anchors from every major network fall all over themselves to explain away “misconceptions” about President Obama’s health insurance reform plan. I often wonder how Bush’s Social Security reform plans of 2005 would have fared if the media had run nightly segments pouncing on the disinformation spread about it.