A call to the right

For Bernadette Malone, her choice of career after graduation had a lot to do with how she voted.

"I wanted to be a conservative in action," she says of her plan to join the Marines.

But along the way she discovered journalism, becoming the editor of the conservative paper on campus, then the protégée of conservative commentator Robert Novak. Now, almost eight years after earning her degree, she is a regular fixture on the op-ed pages of the Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire.

Her story is similar to that of other young conservatives, who never really thought about journalism or how to pursue it as a career. Like Ms. Malone, their experience changed when they encountered conservative organizations that offer training and support to journalists.

What often gets lost in discussions about liberal media bias are the efforts conservatives make not only to grow their own ranks in the Fourth Estate but to encourage all journalists – generally considered to be a liberal bunch – to include a wide range of viewpoints in their stories.

Many conservative groups are using training and education as an alternative to simply complaining about their concerns – including the fact that journalists don't rub elbows with conservatives enough, or don't understand issues that the right champions, like free-market economies.

Conservatives are heard in more venues these days – on cable TV, the Internet, talk radio. But they argue that journalists with their ideology are still absent from traditional outlets like the Big Three television networks and daily papers, places that set the agenda for the nation.

As a result, they are approaching working with the media from many angles: training their own to be skilled journalists, working with reporters of any ideology to explain how to do database research, and offering rigorous education in fair and accurate reporting. That's the goal of a program offered at the National Journalism Center, which began in the 1970s and welcomes students from the left and the right. It's one of at least 10 training programs, many of which are relatively new.

"It's a reflection of a changing market," says Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, which tracks media bias. "The media has exploded, between cable news and the Internet, and that really is what's fueled this concept."

The idea, organization leaders say, is not to indoctrinate anyone, but to foster fairer and more balanced reporting. After all, they note, they don't want to create a counter bias to the one they argue already exists.

"The guiding philosophical light with these people is not to bring in a conservative world view; it is to bring in a broader perspective to the issues. Which is why there are some people who have gone through some of these programs who are not at all conservative," says Mr. Bozell.

Quietly teaching people about free markets as a way to combat bias may sound like fighting a wildfire with a garden hose, especially given how ingrained the problem is, according to pundits and authors.

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