Almost nothing in the paper makes the blood boil faster than an infuriating op-ed column.
Unless you agree with it.
Provoking a strong response is what makes a good op-ed page. Unlike news reporters, columnists are expected to present strong opinions. While some are obstreperous and blatantly political, others invoke nothing more than sweet reason, but all have a point of view.
Several months ago, I asked Marcia Lythcott, who edits this Commentary page, if she aims for balance among columnists, whether the issue is political or not.
Lythcott said she seeks out opinionated voices among the 100 or so submissions she gets every day but her goal isn’t a daily balance. She said it’s best to look at the page over a week or a month’s time.
“Readers look at that day’s page and get livid,” she said, “I tell them you don’t read just one page of a book, do you?”
So I looked at the last 30 days.
Those readers who insist the page is heavy with conservative voices can make a good case with regular weekly columnists such as Charles Krauthammer, Victor Davis Hanson, Jonah Goldberg, Dennis Byrne, Kathleen Parker and, recently, George Will.
Don’t be surprised by that. On Wednesday, the liberal group Media Matters for America issued a study that claims the op-ed pages of the nearly 1,430 daily English-language newspapers in the United States are dominated by conservative syndicated columnists. George Will led that group both in the number of newspapers where his column appears and their combined circulation.
Some readers, a much smaller number, tell me they think the Tribune has a liberal bent in its Commentary page. They cite weekly syndicated columnists Garrison Keillor and Leonard Pitts and Tribune columnist Clarence Page, whose column appears twice a week.
Oddly enough, they also still refer to Molly Ivins, who died last January. What made Ivins reviled among many conservatives and an almost iconic figure among liberals was not just her critical views about fellow Texan George W. Bush and other politicians, but also the way she wrote with such a strong individual voice and self-deprecating humor.
Many on the conservative side felt the same way about William Safire when he was still writing a syndicated political column. He had sharp insights and humor, and just as any good columnist does, he sometimes took unexpected positions.
Tribune columnist Steve Chapman is harder to pin down politically. He appears twice a week, and his views are often seen as conservative but with a strong emphasis on civil liberties. Most columnists resist labels, but Chapman is fine with being called a libertarian.
Labels, of course, are faulty shorthand. Whether you are considered conservative or liberal often depends. “Different issues elicit different postures, and ultimately different alliances,” deputy editorial page editor John McCormick told me recently.
As an example, one person I know is a social liberal in the sense of the responsibility of government and other positions usually associated with Democrats. At the same time, that person is very much opposed to abortion and shares ideas with many Republicans. Which label should be applied?
The other two regular columnists in the paper are foreign policy analyst Georgie Anne Geyer and myself.
Looking over the 30 days of papers, I was surprised to see how many columns had nothing to do with politics and foreign policy, or with the war in Iraq or Al Qaeda.
Of the 91 columns, fully half, that is 46, focused on topics as varied as baseball and building character (Cory Franklin), transportation (Joseph L. Schofer and David F. Schulz) and the death of Luciano Pavarotti (Garrison Keillor). Whether a columnist is identified as liberal or conservative, it doesn’t mean he or she always writes about politics.
A third of the columns, roughly one a day, were by local or national contributors.
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What was glaringly obvious was that women are underrepresented among columnists. There are only two among the 12 regular writers (Kathleen Parker and Georgie Anne Geyer) and eight among the contributors in that 30-day time period.
“It’s a very male field,” Lythcott said. “I’m always looking for more female bylines.” In the last several years the lack of female voices on the op-ed pages of the nation’s newspapers has gained attention and research and advocacy organizations have been encouraging more female participation, though the numbers still are small.
Back to the question of balance. The op-ed page seemed balanced to me in terms of topics or issues of the day. I must admit I was surprised to see that the political opinion also evened out if you looked at it for longer than a few days.
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Timothy J. McNulty is the Tribune’s public editor. His e-mail address is [email protected]. The views expressed are his own.