Daily Beast says "Near-neocon" Fred Hiatt is 5th most influential liberal

The Daily Beast has unveiled its list of "The Left's Top 25 Journalists" -- with Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt coming in at number 5, despite the fact that "many on the left would question Hiatt's presence on this list" because "his near-neocon position on foreign policy enrages the left-wing blogosphere."

Seriously?  The fifth-most influential liberal journalist in America is a neocon?  Who came up with this list, Dick Cheney?

No, actually, it was Tunku Varadarajan, formerly op-ed editor for the Wall Street Journal (whose opinion pages are notoriously conservative) and currently a fellow at the right-wing Hoover Institution, where the fellows program is generously funded by Richard Mellon Scaife.

I know what you're thinking: If The Daily Beast turned to a Scaife-funded right-winger to pen its list of "The Left's Top 25 Journalists," it probably used a Soros-backed liberal to assess journalism's leading conservatives, right?  Nope, that was Varadarajan, too.

Varadarajan also wrote Forbes magazine's recent list of "The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media."  Fred Hiatt came in at number 3 on that list, with Clinton-hating, liberal-bashing Chris Matthews at number 12.