c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) I should have known better than to peek at the discussion on an Internet-based writers’ group the day after the election. From past experience as a member of this and other writers’ forums, it was clear that most journalists blithely assume that everyone else shares their liberal political values.

News of President Bush’s re-election resulted in much anguished hand-wringing.

“I’m appalled and depressed this morning. I just don’t know what will be left of our country after four more years of this crap,” wrote one. Another said she was glad she had moved to Canada, while others predicted destruction to the world environment, obliteration of all civil rights and the expectation of a Christian-based theocracy.

It seemed no reaction was too overwrought to the Bush victory. Another writer likened the president’s religiosity to mental illness: “It’s a sad day when a man claiming to follow God’s instructions prevails in an election. Prominent people who hear voices include the Son of Sam and all those schizophrenics on lifetime medication.”

Admittedly, these writers were expressing feelings still raw from the sting of the Democrats’ losses. But the common theme running through most of the messages was the utter contempt they had for President Bush and by extension, those who voted for him.

At first I promised myself not to jump into the discussion. After all, the purpose of the group is to share useful information and support to members _ professional free-lancers who write for newspapers and magazines across the country. Besides, it seemed almost pointless to try to counter the anti-Bush hysteria. But a few of us Republicans broke our silence and spoke up for our positions. We were thrilled to find we were not alone.

Diana Burrell, a Republican from Westford, Mass., told me that when it comes to politics, “I don’t feel it is safe to `come out’ on writers’ groups as a Republican. Some people are more free to speak than others.” Ironically, this kind of hostility among left-leaning writers toward political conservatives creates exactly the same kind of “chilling effect” that journalists most fear from laws that limit their access to information in pursuit of a story.

It’s also ironic that writers never tired of parroting the Bush-the-dummy smear because the president is not always eloquent. Frankly, many writers are not comfortable speaking in public, but that’s hardly indicative of a lack of intelligence. Moreover, good writers convey messages clearly and simply, which George W. Bush does. Kerry’s stem-winding sentences would have given any of these writers a headache had they been asked to edit and clarify them.

Some of their claims (Bush is a puppet of Cheney; the war in Iraq is for oil) are so patently nonsensical that it’s frightening to think how widespread these beliefs are among journalists _ people who supposedly dig hard to uncover facts. It is tantalizingly easy to slip opinions into a story, including whom to quote, and whom not to quote, what information to convey and which to leave out. This has resulted in the left-leaning slant among journalists that former CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg famously chronicled in his best-selling book, “Bias.”

Fortunately for conservatives like me, intelligent talk radio programs and good weblogs and ‘zines provide crucial news that the mainstream media ignores. This “new media” has already proven its enormous impact on the political landscape. Bloggers, for example, were credited with almost instantly discerning the fraud of the documents reported on CBS’s “60 Minutes” segment claiming that President Bush’s National Guard service record was disreputable. Ultimately, Dan Rather had to acknowledge the documents were faked.

In addition to the cliched accusations, writers in my group worried mightily that President Bush would impose his values on the country. They ignored the fact that politicians on the right and the left try to impose their values through legislation. The question is: What is the source of your values? Politicians who believe in a 50 percent tax rate for the wealthy reflect their value that the government deserves half the money you make, and they will try to impose that value as a law of the land. Every issue in politics, whether on the military, economy, marriage or the environment, reflects a set of values.

As a religious Jew, I am not threatened by the basic Christian values of America and of the president. I am more threatened by the moral relativism of the left, where third-trimester abortions are coyly framed only as a woman’s “right to choose,” and those who fight to preserve the institution of marriage are called bigots.

Most likely, I’ll remain a minority among journalists for my conservative views. But I hope that in the next four years, the good effects that I expect from President Bush’s policies for the entire country will at least make me seem less strange to my colleagues on the left.

(Judy Gruen is the award-winning author of two humor books. Read more of her columns on http://www.judygruen.com.)

MO/JL END RNS