W. Lawrence Walker Jr. speaks to the Dominion Rotary Club. Photo by Joni Simon

Are reporters biased? Rush Limbaugh and countless other daytime radio talk show hosts will tell you they are.

The former publisher of San Antonio Express-News, W. Lawrence Walker Jr., says he agrees with that opinion. He told the Dominion Rotary Club Aug. 12 that it might not be the critics’ imaginations: Most of what can be read in the newspaper may very well have a liberal Democratic slant.

“These are modestly paid news reporters,” Walker said. “When you have entrepreneurs, interested in investing in the stock market, they have a different agenda. They’re someone with a cause.”

Walker, describing himself as a conservative, told the Rotarians he saw every newspaper editorial during the 17 years he was the Express-News’ publisher. He said he was able to stop a few that were “way out there,” but many more ended up in print.

“I argued about bias in the newsroom, but there’s a certain relationship between a publisher and an editor,“ he said. “You have to work within the system.”

The former publisher said he feels he can now speak candidly about political bias in the newsroom, since he‘s been retired for two years.

“Journalists are held in very low esteem,” Walker said. “The biggest misguided problem is that most journalists are liberal, and they think they can write without bias.”

Bias in the media is a national concern, according to Walker, who told the Rotarians that, in newsrooms that participated in a nationwide poll after the last election, 87 percent of the reporters said they voted Democratic.

Still, Walker said newspapers play an important role in the political system. “My opinion as a journalist and a newspaperman is the last remaining checks and balances in the political structure is in jeopardy if we lose the newspapers,” Walker said.

“You don’t want to live in a society where the political system is unchecked. Trust me. As bad as you think it is now, as abusive as some of these political systems can be, I would hate to see it if politicos didn’t wake up every day fearing the newspapers,” he added.

Walker told the Rotarians that, with subscription prices rising and subsidizing publications on the downward turn, newspapers are in some financial danger, but even so, some other sources of news aren‘t as reliable.

“There are hundreds and thousands of bloggers out there saying anything they want to say. People go into them, reading them and believing them, especially, particularly if what they read is consistent with what they think,” Walker said. “That is not the right way.”

Something else that’s been a blow to the political system is redistricting, Walker said. He told the Rotarians that in recent times, redistricting policies have had the biggest negative impact on the political system.

“Redistricting started out, I guess, for a good reason. It was trying to design that we had equal representation among ethnicity and various sectors of our community by splitting the districts,” he said.

“But what has happened is it’s structurally taken us out of the election process because Republicans run strong candidates in certain districts and Democrats will run strong candidates in certain districts.”

The result: There are now very few contested districts, he said.

“This is not a good thing for our political system,” Walker said. “Somewhere, somehow, all the gerrymandering of these districts has got to be stopped.”

Now retired, Walker, an enthusiastic gardener, told the Rotarians he’s embarked on a campaign to recreate a great tasting tomato similar to the kind he grew up with in Georgia.

Walker became chairman of the San Antonio Express-News in January 2006 after having served as publisher and chief executive officer since 1990. He served in the position for a year.

Walker was formerly executive vice president and business manager of Hearst's San Francisco Newspaper Agency, a joint operation that published both the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner.