July 16, 2004

Labeling
Posted by Jon Henke

Pejman is spending a lot of time defending himself over a post in which he said...

The Heritage Foundation is "conservative" and therefore the implicit assumption is raised that they are biased in defending a Republican Administration. But the EPI's ideological inclinations are never discussed.
Kevin Drum thinks that's just dumb...
Well now. Perhaps the real secret behind this is that this is how these groups label themselves.
To which, Pejman responds here....but, I think, he misses out of the most relevant issue, which is: if we go strictly by self-identification, we're going to have some awfully misleading news reports. Consider a reporter saying the following.....
  • The "nonpartisan" National Center for Policy Analysis
Or, for that matter, the home of (Democrat-advocate) Kevin Drum....

No ideology at any of em, don't you know. Just a bunch of independent, non-ideological free-thinkers, and who knows where they'll come down on an issue?

So, I'm thinking Pejman has the best of this argument.

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Comments

I could be wrong, but I always thought of partisan as party first. Which is not always the same as ideology first.

Posted by: Frank Castle at July 16, 2004 06:26 PM

Frank:

Perhaps that's true in a dictionary listing, but most people who hear "non-partisan" will also get the impression of "objective" and "unbiased."

Technically, you could save MoveOn is "non-partisan." Or, for that matter, the Sierra Club (which always seems to endorse Democrats over Greens).

Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds at July 16, 2004 07:53 PM