Where the Right Has the Write Stuff

By: Dave Astor Conservatives might not outnumber liberals in newsrooms, but they do trump them on Opinion pages. A 2002 E&P study found 35 conservative, 30 liberal, and dozens of harder-to- categorize columnists distributed by the eight biggest syndicates, and the 2004 numbers are similar. Also, the two Op-ed columnists with the most newspapers ? a combined 1,000 or so ? are conservatives Cal Thomas (syndicated by Tribune Media Services) and George Will (Washington Post Writers Group). "Syndicates respond to trends. For example, Rush Limbaugh commands a huge audience, so it's an economic bandwagon worth jumping aboard," says Suzette Martinez Standring, president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC). But Mike Leonard, immediate past president of the NSNC and a columnist for the The Herald-Times of Bloomington, Ind., points to another factor: "Newspapers are falling all over themselves to counter the drumbeat of 'liberal media.' Editors and publishers are caving in."