You learn something every day. Last week, I learned that this newspaper leans to the right.

Leans? We’re horizontal. By at least one measure, we appear to be right-wing extremists.

That was news to me, but what do I know? I’m just the editor.

Maybe I’m generalizing a little. OK, a lot, but isn’t that what people do when they paint someone red or blue? They use big brushes and broad strokes.

The source of my surprise is a press release I received from Media Matters for America. The headlines:

“Report: Black and White and Re(a)d All over

“South Carolina Op-Ed Pages Dominated by Right

“Unprecedented Study of U.S. Daily Newspapers Shows Conservatives with Distinct Advantage in Syndicated Op-Eds Nationally and in South Carolina”

This analysis of nationally syndicated columnists from nearly 1,400 daily U.S. newspapers showed that “conservative syndicated columnists appear a total of 58 times per week in South Carolina newspapers. Centrist columnists appear a total of 12 times, while progressive columnists appear a total of 18 times.”

Centrist? In this black-and-white, red-and-blue world, people really are in the middle?

Progressive? Don’t they mean liberal?

We are, after all, the liberal media. So say Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, add nausea (sic).

We are a newspaper. The New York Times and The Washington Post are newspapers. They are liberal. Therefore, we are liberal. Guilt by association.

But now comes a report that debunks this bunk. It’s bogus.

Here’s why: It says 100 percent of the nationally syndicated columnists who appear in your Anderson Independent-Mail are conservative. You re(a)d that right: They’re all right.

Nonsense!

A Media Matters for America staff member told me the study was based on which syndicated columnists appeared at least once a week. Their research showed that we only run three columnists weekly, and all three are conservatives: David Brooks, James Kilpatrick and Paul Greenberg.

Guess what? Only Mr. Kilpatrick appears at least once per week, but that’s a column called “The Writer’s Art.” Conservative? Not even in the most liberal sense of the word.

I’m not buying this bias. I did my own analysis. In September, we published columns by 15 syndicated columnists. Mr. Brooks’ column appeared once. Mr. Greenberg’s column appeared twice. Only Dale McFeatters (thrice) appeared more, unless you count “The Writer’s Art” five times. As I suspected, and as we want, we had a good mix of views.

Our trend is toward guest columnists. We want more local voices.

Conservative voices? Liberal voices? In this slice of media, it doesn’t matter, regardless of what Media Matters in America thinks.