Warriors of the Mainstream Media

This neocon attitude – eager for “regime change” in Muslim countries deemed enemies of Israel – has long dominated the Washington Post, with its editorial page under the control of neocon Fred Hiatt and with its stable of neocon writers who routinely adopt Likud-like positions regarding the Middle East.

The neoconning of the New York Times is at a less advanced stage, although many of its key senior editors, such as editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal and executive editor Bill Keller, lean in the neocon direction. Keller, for instance, openly sided with President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq – and was still appointed to the newspaper’s top editorial job.

In the past two weeks, the Times also has lost two of its strongest liberal voices in the departures of columnists Frank Rich and Bob Herbert. That tilts the Times’ influential op-ed pages even further in favor of neocon and right-wing voices, much like the Post’s op-ed page has been for years.