The Pew Research Center released a study showing that among national press organizations, 34% of those working in journalism identify themselves as liberals, while only 7% identify themselves as conservatives. At the local level, the disparity is 23% to 12%. The rest of America overwhelmingly label themselves "conservatives" rather than "liberals."

My sense is that if party identification were used rather than one's ideological leanings, the gap would be even wider. "Liberal" is a subjective term, while "Democrat" is an objective one. While many conservatives proudly embrace that label, the word "liberal" is a source of embarrassment for many, well, liberals.

Liberals are in denial. They believe themselves centrists, perhaps because they associate exclusively with other liberals. There's the old cliche of the Manhattan liberal wondering how Richard Nixon won re-election: "But everybody I know voted for McGovern." A parochial mind believes his norm to be the norm.

Years ago, I heard Robert Novak tell the story of Margaret Carlson's refusal to say "From the Left, I'm Margaret Carlson" when signing off on Crossfire. For the uninitiated, saying "From the Left" or "From the Right" is the obligatory Crossfire ending for the respective hosts. But Carlson balked, believing herself a moderate.

This is the condition that afflicts most of the media: Margaret Carlson Syndrome. Surrounded by like-minded people, they get the impression that their little world is a microcosm for the rest of the country. It isn't. Enveloped to their left and right by, for the most part, other liberals, they get the impression that they're centrists. They're not.

Great definition of parochial. I have lived in NYC for two years and am still regularly amazed at how a city so gigantic and with so many people can be so backwards and provincial.

"But everyone I know voted for Mcgovern" is the correct paraphrase here.