Washington Post Crashed-and-Burned Watch (Yet Another Deborah Howell Edition)

Why oh why can't we have a better press corps:

Deborah Howell on Remedying Perceptions of Media Bias: Thousands of conservatives and even some moderates have complained during my more than three-year term that The Post is too liberal; many have stopped subscribing, including more than 900 in the past four weeks.... [S]ome of the conservatives' complaints about a liberal tilt are valid....

[T]he drumbeat of polling stories saying Obama and the Democrats were likely to win, a few Tom Toles cartoons, and TV critic Tom Shales's debate reviews -- both are liberals who are paid to offer opinions -- and conservatives decided that The Post was cheerleading.... It's not hard to see why conservatives feel disrespected.

Are there ways to tackle this? More conservatives in newsrooms.... Editors hire not on the basis of beliefs but on talent in reporting, photography and editing, and hiring is at a standstill because of the economy. But newspapers have hired more minorities and women, so it can be done...

Yes, Deborah Howell believes that newspapers have hired more women and minorities by passing over white male candidates who are more talented in reporting, editing, and photography.

And she believes that the Washington Post has an obligation to hire untalented conservatives as reporters.

Wow.