Glenn Reynolds writes
approvingly of a
passage by Te-Nehisi Coates that includes this: "I don't think that you guys
expect me to get it write right 100 percent of the time. I
think you expect me to try very hard to be accurate, and immediately acknowledge
when I've failed to do so." With apologies to Coates, whom I read too
infrequently to assess, I want more than that. Specifically, I also demand
evenhandedness of error. What makes me avoid the New York Times
and other leftist-media outlets, as well as most rightist media, isn't that
they make mistakes but that those mistakes nearly always benefit their
favored side. They're like referees whose calls help only one team. Yes, they also ignore their errors, but that's secondary. Their bias would
render them untrustworthy even were they to note every
mistake.