The Conservative MSM

I think I've relayed this point before ... but Ta-Nehisi Coates has another example from Sunday's MTP of a pretend "2 liberal v. 2 conservative" policy debate. There's a good case to be made that on many TV shows the conservatives on the roundtable are bonafide, while the liberals are lukewarm progressives:

This is an interesting debate. What you have below are four people--two, presumably from each side. I think Harold Ford gamely defended Obama's budget. Dee-Dee Meyers, not so much. I'm not even sure that that's why she was there. Also there's David Gregory. His job is to be critical of Obama and I have no problem with that. But because of the other parts of the panel, you end up with a three against one dynamic, with Dee-Dee Meyers kinda giving color commentary. Moreover, even our one is barely a one--whereas Scarborough and Murphy would call themselves conservatives in a minute, Ford has never thought of himself as a liberal.

My beef is simple--We need actual liberals to represent the liberal perspective. I think part of the problem may be that our most effective defenders are no long in the MSM, but here online. You can pull yours truly out of that convo. On budgetary policy, I would have gotten stomped by Murphy and Scarborough, and I've got the sense to know it. But give me Ezra, or Matt. Give me someone from the Obsidian Wings crew. We have people who know this stuff. God bless Krugman, but we have a deeper bench than that.