Bill O'Reilly

OK so it’s not the most surprising headline and many people probably believe it could be a daily column but this is a special episode of “Bill O’Reilly is Allergic to Facts.” Today’s episode: Newspaper circulation.

O’Reilly’s syndicated column is essentially a hearty har-har-har over the troubles at the New York Times which is, of course, a favorite topic among the legions of Americans who hate the “paper of record.” There’s certainly plenty to write about on that score but Bill takes the super lazy way out insists the paper’s problems are because it’s “the nation’s largest left-wing newspaper.”

The New York Times is most definitely a committed left-wing concern that is openly contemptuous of the conservative, traditional point-of-view. That is the primary reason the paper may soon dissolve.

O’Reilly supports his argument by noting that recent newspaper closings have all been at similarly “lefty” publications.

Over the past few months, newspapers in Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Denver have either folded or filed for bankruptcy. With the exception of The Rocky Mountain News, all the papers were committed left-wing enterprises. The truth is that most Americans are traditional-minded folks; they believe their country is noble, they want respectful discourse. Fanaticism of any kind is not the American way.

Neither is making sh*t up and that’s what BillO’s up to today. First off when did the Chicago Tribune become a “committed left-wing enterprise”? When they backed George W Bush over Al Gore in 2000 or when they backed George W Bush over John Kerry in 2004? Supporting Obama in 2008 was as much of a surprise as the fact that no major Texas newspaper failed to endorse their home-state guy in 2000.

Then, even if you accept that those other closed papers were super liberal, is that really the reason they folded? After all the survivors in Denver and Seattle are certainly no more conservative than their fallen brethren. The Denver Post endorsed Gore in 2000 while the Rocky Mountain News went with Bush. And both supported Bush over Kerry in 2004. Commies indeed!

The truth (Bill loves that word — too bad he doesn’t practice what he so pompously preaches) is that newspapers across the country are in dire straights and it has nothing to do with their editorial pages. Look at what’s happened to the circulation at the top 10 “conservative” papers from 2007 to 2008 (new figures are out on Monday) [see below for update]:

WSJ                                                  0.0%
NY Post                                           -6.3%
Chicago Trib                                   -7.8%
Dallas Morning News                     -9.3%
Boston Herald                                -9.9%
San Diego Union Tribune               -3.0%
Tampa Tribune                               -2.4%
AZ Republic                                     -5.5%
Indy Star                                          -3.3%
Columbus Dispatch                        -2.9%

And the three most prominent “lefty pinko rags”

New York Times                              -3.6%
Washington Post                             -1.9%
Newsday                                           -2.6%

Other than the Wall Street Journal which, along with America’s other national newspaper USA Today held circulation steady, every major paper left and right suffered circulation declines. If readers are abandoning the NY Times at a rate of 3.6 percent because of it’s leftward leanings then we (and Bill) have to conclude that readers are abandoning the NY Post at a rate of 6.3 percent because of it’s rightward leanings. The only logical conclusion? Right-wing rags are in bigger trouble than liberal ones.

C’mon Bill. you can do better than that!

[UPDATE] Now that the new numbers are out the news is even worse for the newspaper business and further demonstrates how far off base Bill is. The “liberal lions” are losing readers far more slowly than the biggest conservative newspapers with the exception of the Wall St. Journal. Indeed the right’s most prized paper, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post lost more readers than almost any other paper in America. Here’s the same list as above showing the most recent circulation figures which were released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations:

WSJ                                               +0.1%
NY Post                                         -20.6%
Chicago Trib                                 -7.4%
Dallas Morning News                   -9.9%
Boston Herald                              -13.6%
San Diego Union Tribune             -9.5%
Tampa Tribune                             -11.4%
AZ Republic                                  -5.7%
Indy Star                                       -9.0%
Columbus Dispatch                     -2.0%

And the three most prominent “lefty pinko rags”

New York Times                           -3.6%
Washington Post                          -1.1%
Newsday                                        -3.0%