Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

I think I know where the hostility comes from. A little background is necessary.

Before I got into blogging, I was involved with the skeptic/freethinker movement. I spent my early years reading accounts of paranormal claims and their subsequent debunkings, even analyzing a few claims myself.

During this time, I discovered something which most phony psychics and paranormal researchers have in common, regardless of whether they are con artists or true believers. No matter how much evidence is presented to the contrary, claimants always insist that they are right and the tests are wrong. Why? Because, invariably, they begin every endeavor with one truth; that they are right. That belief is as fundamental as cogito ergo sum to these folks.

It's like a prism through which all information must be viewed. Contrary data passes in and excuses come out the other end.

Which brings us back to the New York Times.

Conservatives have a similar prism when it comes to the dreaded Emm-Ess-Emm in general and the times in particular. Many conservatives begin with the belief that the NYT is liberal, and all other information must be viewed through that prism. The fact that the article was positive is irrelevant; the NYT is liberal, therefore their intentions must have been foul.

I'd like to conclude with a question for any right-wing true believers that might be out there. When James Randi dealt with psychics, he'd always start by asking what evidence would prove to them that they didn't have any powers. It allowed him to figure out how rational they were.

So my question is this: What would the New York Times (or any other branch of the media) have to do to prove that it isn't liberal? UPDATE: What timing! Michelle Malkin, who is leading the charge against the NYT for the 81st Chairborne, is kvetching because the Times printed:

maps and specific street names and photographs of the private (not anymore) homes where the Vice President and Defense Secretary and their families spend their vacations.

That information was in an article in the travel section on St. Michaels. And if those "maps and specific street names" exist, they aren't in the link MM provided. In other words, the Malkinator took a perfectly normal travel piece on a community in Maryland and turned it into a sinister plot by the Dread Lord Keller to get terrorists to kill the vice president. Absurd, you say? Not if you assume the NYT is liberal. I couldn't wish for a better case study.