9/11/00 3:20 p.m.
Bias about Bias
Howie Kurtz says the WSJ over-criticizes Gore.

By NR's John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru

e sometimes suspect that the function of the establishment press's media watchdogs is not so much to police the press's biases as to reinforce them. Consider the case of Howard Kurtz, the ubiquitous media reporter primarily affiliated with the Washington Post. He does not much dwell on ideological bias in the media; in fact, we're not sure we've ever read a column by him on the subject. Until today, when he has finally found an example of it. . . on the Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

"Critical to a Fault, Journal Targets Gore" is Kurtz's headline. To a fault? Of the many criticisms of Gore by the Journal which Kurtz quotes, he does not show one to be factually baseless or even unfair. Kurtz's complaint appears to be that there are just too many criticisms. So what? It's an editorial page. The Journal is allowed to rough up Gore, just as nobody much protests the New Republic's relentless snarkiness about George W. Bush. The vast majority of the Journal's readers know that the paper has a point of view, and know what that point of view is. Everything is upfront. It would be nice if the same could be said of the news coverage in our leading papers, including the Washington Post.

Drug War Illusions
George Will's latest syndicated column argues that American aid to Colombia will not help us win the war on drugs. "Will the United States ever learn?" he asks. "As long as it has a $50 billion annual demand for an easily smuggled substance made in poor nations, the demand will be served." True. But the point that demand calls forth supply does not apply only abroad. It also makes nonsense of efforts to suppress drug use by throwing drug sellers in jail. That doesn't mean that George Will should, to follow the logic of his position, abandon the war on drugs altogether. He could come out for punishing casual drug users, for real, so as to drive down demand. But does anyone think such a policy could be sustained for longer than two minutes?

In the course of making his point, Will relates a story in which George Shultz expressed skepticism about another effort to win the drug war overseas. Will got the story from Daniel Patrick Moynihan. But perhaps he should talk directly to Shultz, who supports the legalization of drugs.