"A conservative,' said the NPR reporter this morning, "Smith supported the Iraq war."
It wasn't Smith; I forget the name. But no matter. My point is the connection between"conservative" and supporting the invasion of Iraq.
Many conservatives do, in fact, support the war. So do many liberals.
But the policy is not conservative. Nor is it liberal.
Its origins may be found in the eras of McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, all of whom jettisoned what had been traditional American policy - stay far from foreign conflicts - to involve the nation overseas. Early in the process, the US took posssession of colonies. Later, with Wilsonian "idealism" trumping "real politique," we helped build the post World War I world.
All that is complex. The straight line, however, is simple. So journalists hop to it. They see it horizontal, with conservatives a little to the right of the middle and liberals a little to the left. Also, on the far right there are Nazis and on the far left, Commie pinkos.
And the game is shaping, squeezing, forcing complex reality into the mind-box of the horizontal line.
Simple? Yes. Ignorant? You bet.
But - the Columbia Journalism Review aside - nobody still believes journalism is supposed to help citizens think clearly. It's about careers and selling papers and ratings, right?