<P> On March 26, 2007, Chris Matthews said on his television program, "Well, The Washington Post is not the liberal newspaper it was, Congressman, let me tell you . I have been reading it for years and it is a neocon newspaper". It has regularly published an ideological mixture of op - ed columnists, some of them left - leaning (including E. J. Dionne, Dana Milbank, Greg Sargent, and Eugene Robinson), and many on the right (including George Will, Marc Thiessen, Michael Gerson and Charles Krauthammer, who continued writing columns until shortly before his death in 2018). </P> <P> In a study published on April 18, 2007, by Yale professors Alan Gerber, Dean Karlan, and Daniel Bergan, citizens were given a subscription to either the conservative - leaning Washington Times or the liberal - leaning Washington Post to see the effect that media has on voting patterns . Gerber had estimated based on his work that the Post slanted as much to the left as the Times did to the right . Gerber found those who were given a free subscription of the Post were 7.9--11.4% more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate for governor than those assigned to the control group, depending on the adjustment for the date on which individual participants were surveyed and the survey interviewer; surprisingly, however, people who received the Times were also more likely than controls to vote for the Democrat, with an effect approximately 60% as large as that estimated for the Post . The study authors noted that sampling error might have played a role in the effect of the conservative - leaning Times, as might the fact that the Democratic candidate took more conservative - leaning positions than is typical for his party, and "the month prior to the post-election survey was a difficult period for President Bush, one in which his overall approval rating fell by approximately 4 percentage points nationwide . It appears that heightened exposure to both papers' news coverage, despite opposing ideological slants, moved public opinion away from Republicans ." </P> <P> In November 2007, the newspaper was criticized by independent journalist Robert Parry for reporting on anti-Obama chain e-mails without sufficiently emphasizing to its readers the false nature of the anonymous claims . In 2009, Parry criticized the newspaper for its allegedly unfair reporting on liberal politicians, including Vice President Al Gore and President Barack Obama . </P> <P> Responding to criticism of the newspaper's coverage during the run - up to the 2008 presidential election, former Post ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote: "The opinion pages have strong conservative voices; the editorial board includes centrists and conservatives; and there were editorials critical of Obama . Yet opinion was still weighted toward Obama ." According to a 2009 Oxford University Press book by Richard Davis on the impact of blogs on American politics, liberal bloggers link to The Washington Post and The New York Times more often than other major newspapers; however, conservative bloggers also link predominantly to liberal newspapers . </P>

Who founded the northern standard and served as its editor and publisher for many years