American Liberals

Barack Obama’s inauguration was the formal point at which the reigning ideology in Washington changed from “conservative” to “liberal.” We use those terms without apology, as they are used in American political discourse.

Broadly, a “liberal’ subscribes to some or all of the following: progressive income taxation; universal health care of some kind; opposition to the war in Iraq, and a certain queasiness about the war on terror; an instinctive preference for international diplomacy; the right to gay marriage; a woman’s right to an abortion; environmentalism in some Kyoto Protocol-friendly form; and a rejection of the McCain-Palin ticket.

In recognition of the role played by the media in our national debate, Forbes.com nominates, here, 25 of America’s most consequential liberal journalists and media personalities.

Our list includes newspaper editors and columnists, magazine writers, television anchors and commentators, as well as one TV personality more commonly regarded as an entertainer. It also includes–how could it not?–a number of bloggers, all of whom have made an emphatic mark on the modern American Conversation.

The exercise is subjective, by definition, and Forbes Opinions editors canvassed the views of more than 100 academics, politicians and journalists. The list that follows is a distillation of that survey.