‘The Debt Ceiling Is a Completely Pointless Contrivance’
“What they really want out of all this is to basically hold the American economy hostage, so that they can extort…key spending cuts.”
Bret Stephens Says Journalists Admitting Values Would ‘End United States’
In his crusade for “objectivity,” Bret Stephens seems, ironically, to have thrown inconvenient evidence out the window.
Can False Balance Kill You? It Sure Can
You know what would actually benefit politics in the US? A media system that was willing to point out who was causing demonstrable problems.
Even After January 6, Some in Media Can’t Kick Their Addiction to False Balance
If editors learn anything from the events of the last four years, it should be that “balance” is a dangerous substitute for fairness and accuracy.
Voters Should be Wary of USA Today’s False Balance on Election 2020
Outlets like USA Today overstate Trump’s support and create the impression of a balance that doesn’t exist.
NYT, Reviewing Trump’s ‘100 Days,’ Shows Folly of ‘Both Sides’ Journalism
If reporters, like historians, can find the bright side of genocide, then the “both sides” ethos knows no bounds.
Hiding DAPL Violence Behind ‘Nothing to See Here’ Headlines
One almost gets the sense that editors writing headlines like these have enlisted themselves on the sheriff’s team, waving spectators away with a “nothing to see here, folks.”
WaPo and Keystone False Balance
Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel has a column in the Washington Post today (1/3/12) outlining the three important election issues to watch–and one of them is about how the press covers the process: Third, the media’s obsession with false equivalence: How the election is covered will almost certainly have a measurable impact on its outcome. […]
Public TV’s Inequality Balancing Act
The PBS NewsHour did a pretty strong piece last month (8/16/11) on inequality in America. So perhaps it was a sense of “balance” that drove them to do a follow-up segment on September 21 that argued that things aren’t so bad after all. As anchor Jeffrey Brown put it: NewsHour economics correspondent Paul Solman has […]
ABC’s Drivel About ‘Partisan Rancor’
Some of the media commentary around the debt ceiling bemoans the state of the partisanship in Washington. Much of the chatter is about a supposed failure to compromise. As Josh Marshall argues, “this is simply false, even painfully so.” By any reasonable standard, the White House and the Democratic leadership have made an array of […]
