Remember all the fuss over a 1981-82 survey professing to show that the news is being distorted by a liberal journalistic elite that is out of touch with the rest of America? Conservative pressure groups with lots of money to spend spread these charges far and wide. Recent cover stories in two professional magazines challenge the accuracy of the findings. But what is stranger is that the accusations no longer seem to matter so much, and the reason is Ronald Reagan.
A "liberal tilt" does exist in the personal views of a majority of newspapermen, according to Public Opinion, a scholarly...