As a young journalist, I once had a supervisor who required us to label conservative analysts in our news stories as “conservatives,” while the liberals were simply referred to as “analysts.” And if a conservative analyst’s opinion really rubbed the supervisor the wrong way, she might rewrite the script to label him a “right-wing” analyst. The implication is that when a conservative says something, the opinion needs to be qualified and perhaps discounted. But the liberal? He’s just an independent, fair guy giving an everyman’s opinion.
