Since I first pointed out the massive ideological imbalance in Washington Post “Live Online” guests this year, the Post's guest list has been a bit more balanced -- with progressives actually holding a numerical advantage. By my count, the paper has hosted three clearly-identifiable conservatives and five progressives since my April 6 post.
But those numbers are misleading: The people I'm classifying as progressives include a scientist at Oceana and the Secretary of Energy. Meanwhile, the Post consistently gives a platform to hard-right ideologues.
Progressives:
Jacqueline Savitz, Sr. Scientist, Oceana
Rep. Raul Grijalva, (D-Ariz.)
Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy
Mark Potok, Spokesman and Director of Publications and Information, Southern Poverty Law Center
Ellen Kahn, Family Project Director, Human Rights Campaign, washingtonpost.comConservatives*
Joe Arpaio, Sheriff, Maricopa County (Ariz.)
Peter Sprigg, Senior Fellow for Policy Studies, Family Research Council
Judson Phillips, Founder, Tea Party Nation
Those two lists aren't remotely similar.
Sprigg, as I noted previously, says “gay behavior” should be outlawed and that he would “much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than to import them into the United States because we believe that homosexuality is destructive to society.”
Arpaio's draconian treatment of prisoners and rabid anti-immigrant stance have made him a favorite of the “White Nationalist Community” Stormfront.org and prompted federal civil rights investigations -- investigations he as refused to cooperate with.
Phillips has defended Tom Tangredo's statement that Barack Obama was elected because of the lack of a “civics literacy test” for voting and has been accused of profiteering. Phillips praises the fringe Birther site WorldNetDaily as an “amazing source of information,” and offers a "solution" to undocumented immigrants: “Take a plane load of them and dump them in Somalia. Make no secret of it and tell the illegals, every time we catch them, that is where they are going.”
* List includes Tea Party leader Judson Phillips, whose Q&A occurs later this afternoon.