IDEOLOGY-FREE RAINES? "Editor & Publisher" has a long interview with Howell Raines, executive editor of the "New York Times." (Link via Romenesko.) In it, Raines describes how he guided his newspaper's remarkable coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks. But Raines also supplies a quote that perfectly illustrates how media bias is totally unrecognized by those who practice it:

"I'm aware of perceptions," he says, "but I'm aware of who I am, and I am not a highly ideological person. I've never belonged to any political party as a matter of principle."

Raines not ideological? Now THAT'S news.