A lesson in objectivity

Matt Yglesias catches Jamie Kirchick somewhat aggressively missing Max Blumenthal's point. Here's Jamie's zinger: "Because as we all know The Nation and The Huffington Post are bastions of objectivity and politically diverse readerships."

I want t to extrapolate for a moment to what I imagine are Jamie's assumptions that The New Republic is a perfectly objective magazine with a politically diverse readership. I think I take issue with both. To refute the first, one has to look no further than the writings of Jamie Kirchick. But the second one's a little trickier. Typically I imagine that the bulk of a magazine's readership is comprised of a range of people centered at that magazines particular ideological bent: I'd guess that most of The Nation's readers are hard- to mainstream-leftists, and that The National Review's readers are right wingers and extreme right wingers. By the same token, one might assume that most of The New Republic 's readers are center-lefters, center-righters, Very Serious People, and delusional neo-conservatives. More diverse? Possibly. But I don't see why that's a particularly praise-worthy thing.