Conor Friedersdorf has a good piece at Culture11 on the need for more conservatives to go into mainstream journalism (h/t Rod Dreher):

Put another way, the right must conclude that we’re better off joining the journalistic project than trying to discredit it. Making this judgment means exhibiting confidence that we are correct more often than not. It means believing that our arguments are not merely relevant, but true. It means trusting that, when examined, the facts and stories of the world will bear out our ideas. Fate has not declared that right-leaning publications shall never be read by liberals. Nor is there a decree that all unaffiliated publications are de facto liberal. Yet as long as the right continues to believe this — and act accordingly — it will, I fear, continue to be true.

While I think Conor downplays the systemic reasons mainstream journalism attracts a disproportionate number of lefties (comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and all that), I think he’s basically correct. Of course, there’s real reporting by conservatives now — Conor mentions Heather Mac Donald, and I’d add our own Stanley Kurtz and Byron York and others. But, while it would be bad for NR, how much better would it be better for the country if, say, Byron covered the White House for the AP, Ramesh were the New York Times’ Supreme Court reporter, and Jonah were a feature writer for the Washington Post Style section?

And I highly recommend Culture11 – apparently intended as a conservative version of Slate, backed by Bill Bennett, Steve Forbes and others, and run by the very able Joe Carter. But I don’t get the name — why 11? It’s not the meaning of life (that’s 42). I’m sure Derb could get a whole column out of the number 11, but I’m stumped by it.