esrosedotblog

BOTH SIDES OR NONE

I see this on CNN every morning.

Paul Krugman says:

Long ago I said that if liberals said the Earth was round, while conservatives said it was flat, the news headlines would read “Shape of the planet: both sides have a point.” But I encountered a new wrinkle today.

I was tentatively scheduled to be on a broadcast dealing with — well, I won’t embarrass them. But first they had to find someone to take the opposite view. And it turned out that they couldn’t — which led to canceling the whole segment.

In a way this goes beyond my original point, which was the unwillingness of the news media to referee a controversy by actually reporting the facts. Now it seems that a fact isn’t worth reporting unless someone is prepared to deny it.

And the talking heads or "reporters" will never question an assertion by anyone. They will ask a question, even a good one, but they will not follow up or show facts to the contrary.

Laziness? Fear? Stupidity?

All three, I think.

Labels: media