Uneasy Rhetoric

A decade ago or so, the newspaper that once employed Mark Twain shut its doors. In an effort to compete with the Sacramento Bee, the Sacramento Union became increasingly conservative, positioning itself as the alternative to the “liberal media.” (Yes, that phrase has been around a long time.)

Now, the Union has been resurrected as an online publication (and a monthly news magazine). I wonder if the new publication will have new politics?

On the homepage, there are links to two editorials explaining the return of Sacramento’s old newspaper: “Why Revive The Sacramento Union, Online?” and “The Right Time to Return.”

In the first, the editor lists questions, prompts really, for the reader to answer. Among the questions are two that stick out:

Wouldn’t you like to see some balance returned to lopsided news reporting?

Are you dedicated to the heritage from the founding fathers, a tradition that has made this country great?

Overt claims to return “balance” to the news media have generally been thinly veiled appeals to those who feel the media is too liberal; the most famous of these attempts is Fox News’ “fair and balanced” reporting.

Furthermore, liberals and conservatives can argue until the cows come home about the intentions of the founding fathers, but conservatives hold the monopoly on using the founding fathers as a rhetorical devise to pursue their agenda (actually, using the word “tradition” and the phrase “made this country great” are also, generally speaking, conservative rhetoric).

In the second editorial it says:

…the Union stood for a set of principles – the social good of individual liberty, skepticism of political promises, wariness of the reach of government – that were being trampled in the mainstream media.

Sounds like a conservative rag to me. Nevertheless, I will put them in my list of media sources because 1) I believe in reading what the other side is reading and 2) it is a hometown publication. And it’s nice they are only killing a few trees to print the magazine. It’s probably too much to ask that it be printed on post-consumer content recycled paper though? Maybe it is?

I don’t think reading a conservative cyberrag is going to make me a conservative. After all, I grew up reading the Union (for the reason anyone chooses one paper over another: my father preferred the crosswords in the Union) and still managed to become a Democratic Party animal.