Top Liberal Pundits: Krugman, Huffington, Friedman

Fresh off his Nobel Prize, Paul Krugman has another honor to claim: He's the most influential liberal in the media, according to Forbes.

The Princeton economist and New York Times columnist heads up a list of the 25 "most consequential liberal journalists and media personalities," as determined by Tunku Varadarajan, Elisabeth Eaves and Hana R. Alberts. (Varadajan is the former Wall Street Journal op-ed editor who has overseen Forbes.com's Opinions Channel since last September.)

Three of Krugman's New York Times colleagues joined him on the list: fellow columnists Thomas Friedman, at No. 4 ("Behind the seemingly glib sound bites lie opinions that are genuinely influential among the educated, tome-reading public and the Washington establishment") and Maureen Dowd, at No. 15 ("She is much better at meowing at her own side"), and their editor, David Shipley, at No. 9. Notably, Frank Rich didn't make the cut.

In another snub, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews were both ranked, at No. 7 and No. 12, respectively, while the channel's biggest star, Keith Olbermann, was left off.

Also on the list: Arianna Huffington (No. 2), Jon Stewart (No. 5), Christopher Hitchens (No. 14) and Andrew Sullivan (No. 19).