The Inside Edge covered the multiple stories by the Denver Post about Bob Schaffer's involvement in Mariana Islands legislation. The subsequent fact finding mission that then-US Rep Schaffer went on to the Islands was eventually to have been shown to be "partly" paid for by the notorious Jack Abramoff.

Yesterday an alert Wally World reader sent us a multi-part series from the Rossputin blog (aka Ross Kaminsky) taking issue with many of the facts asserted in the Post's story.

Chief amongst the objections Kaminsky has is that the Post series "used misleading information and partisan rhetoric" disguised as a "news" story to advance "thinly-veiled Democratic propaganda against Bob Schaffer."

We have to agree that the Post's stories weren't the most balanced pieces of journalism. We don't think the bias is nefarious however. We just think it's the product of the club-like atmosphere in journalism, especially the type practiced by newspapers.

We'll give you one quick example:

We find it ironic that the Marianas articles would allow the DSCC to attack by proxy forced abortions that happened on the Islands. It implied 1) Schaffer was responsible for the abortions and 2) that there is something inherently wrong with abortions. It did not however question the position of the Democrats in general about abortion in light of the controversy nor mention Schaffer's unquestioned support amongst pro-life groups.

Without addressing the rights or wrongs of pro-life versus pro-choice arguments, we think any fair-minded journalist might see the irony inherent in the exclusion. Except of course one so blinded by their own bias that they don't understand the pro-life side of the question.

We were reminded this weekend of one of the most enlightened comments about this issue.

It came from Tim Russert who said that real diversity in the newsroom wasn't just about black and white, or male and female. It was about the newsroom taking people from small schools and big schools, people from different walks of life and people who had divergent views, from liberal to conservative.

So if you really want to embrace diversity, take a minute to read the Rossputin blog. You don't have to agree with it. In fact, real diversity isn't about agreeing, but about disagreeing and reading it anyway.