Liberalism isn’t evil; conservativism isn’t the only game in town

Is The Sun News too liberal for local tastes, as letter writers frequently suggest? Or are conservative critics merely piling on?

Perhaps, but consider the staff’s dilemma. To adhere to the ethical standards of their profession, they are compelled to do research, to look at every side of every issue, and to reach logical and supportable conclusions about their observations. When facts conflict with conservative readers’ pre-conceived opinions, they think they are staring at the face of liberal bias. But often that’s not the case. Whether we like them or not, facts, like science and data, are objective reality.

That long-suffering staff is equally plagued by the curse that if they publish four conservative and one liberal-leaning letter on the Opinion Page, someone will accuse them of left-wing bias. Could your preconceptions be getting in the way? If you made up your mind on all weighty issues when you accepted your high-school diploma, then you will inevitably spend your days encountering circumstances that seem to conflict with your chosen worldview. When you are occasionally right, it is coincidence; it does not arise from anything resembling a thought process. Yes, this is frustrating, but it is the path you consciously chose as a teenager.

Scientists have established that people’s views are far more susceptible to their biases than to their desire for sound information. If you report for a newspaper and are not a data gatherer, your career will prove very short. If you gather only data supporting your views, plenty of newspapers and Fox News will offer you a job, but what they publish is propaganda. So why not honestly admit that what you seek in the newspaper is an echo of your own thoughts? Isn’t that the point of your protest letters?

As a compassionate conservative, show some empathy for the poor reporters cursed with the knowledge that all good stories lie buried beneath piles of self-serving rubble and must be excavated, scrubbed and crosschecked from many angles. To connect emotionally with good reporters, imagine yourself being consumed with a passion to walk down dark tunnels every day until some light appears. By comparison, Sisyphus had it easy. If it weren’t the most important task in a divided democracy, the job would be thankless.

It might also prove helpful to lower your hostility level toward liberalism; recall that it began as a belief in freedom and equal rights that imposes constitutional limits on the power of the leader of the nation, codifies its beliefs in a Bill of Rights, mandates the separation of powers, and declares that the game is rigged unless the governed willingly agree with those in charge. The most liberal document in America is the Declaration of Independence. There now. Is that so bad? There are no single-sided issues, so if The Sun News occasionally expresses a liberal sentiment, perhaps we should all write a thank-you letter to the editor.

The writer lives in Pawleys Island.

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Liberalism isn’t evil; conservativism isn’t the only game in town."