"Public Lives" of liberals.(Scan)

Conservatives have long suspected that the New York Times slants the news to favor liberals, but sometimes the paper's most insidious bias is tucked away in places you might not think to look. The Times' "Public Lives" is a regular profile of a notable New York local who either made good or is "doing good," which in Times-land means being a left winger.

The Times ran 205 "Public Lives" profiles in 2003. A full 26 were sympathetic portrayals of politically active liberals or left-wingers immersed in their advocacy environment, and given free reign to promote their causes without journalistic criticism. Only four dealt with anyone even vaguely right-of-center, and those typically contained far more criticism.

A profile of Charlotte Kates, a Rutgers law student and Palestinian terrorist sympathizer, blandly notes that Kates "will not, for instance, condemn suicide bombings, saying 'it is not our place in the United States to dictate the tactics Palestinian groups use in the liberation struggle.'" Endearing asides about her "weakness for Dr. Pepper" and her Gustav Klimt art posters soften the account.

Admittedly, some of the liberal dogooders really are doing good: Vanita Gupta worked for the NAACP on a drug case in Tulia, Texas where "more than a tenth of the town's black population was arrested in a drug sting based on the uncorroborated testimony of one ...