MSM Experiment

I was looking that the New York Times web site and decided to try something. I did a search for the term “right-wing” in their archives dating back to 1981 and got 17,286 results. I did a search for “left-wing” and got 10,048 results. That’s 72% more uses of the term “right-wing” than “left-wing”.
I also looked at “conservative” (71,510 results) and liberal (43,908 results). That’s 63% more for conservative than liberal.
We always talk about MSM bias, and the NYT as a thought leader in the MSM is probably the best outlet to look at. It’s obvious that the Times is much more comfortable labeling something right-wing or conservative than left-wing or liberal. Bernarnd Goldberg claims that this is because liberals in the media don’t tend to see themselves as liberals. They tend to see themselves as moderate or middle of the road, so when other liberals hold the same views as them they can’t label them liberals. Anyone to the right of leftist positions (which they think is centrist) is therefore a right-winger.
As Newsbusters has been reporting, several MSM outlets have been omitting disgraced NY governor Eliot Spitzer’s party affiliation (he’s a Democrat) and AFP even labeled him with an (R).