Liberal bias in the Springfield News-Leader? Surely you jest!

I did a word count on Tony Messenger's Sunday editorial, Riding out the storm: MSU's Kauffman gets his voice back, 2,250 words. That's TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY words spent in an eloquent effort to paint Kauffman as an unwitting and undeserving victim of the Christian right and the Alliance Defense Fund, oh, and let's not forget conservative radio talk show hosts who "ride the short bus."

This might be a reason why the conservative readers of the Springfield News-Leader believe that the News-Leader has a liberal bias.

2,250 words spent in telling the compelling personal story of Frank G. Kauffman. 2,250 words which include epitaphs hurled at Kauffman by:

"angry people all over the world, many of them claiming to be Christians."

One gets the impression that it was those evil evangelical, right wing, intolerant Christians and the evil Alliance Defense Fund which *might* have ruined a good man's life.

Kauffman admits Emily Brooker was:

"...subjected to unrelenting questioning about her religious beliefs. She was threatened with not being able to graduate. She was intimidated and scared."

And Kauffman admits to:

"...sheepishly, he says — participat(ing)..."

But that's okay because he's a liberal who "won't back down from his causes, liberal or not."

Taking a stand on social issues is commendable for a liberal, intolerant for a conservative. Don't believe me? Just ask the late Jerry Falwell.

We get it, Tony, we really do.