Sunday, January 23, 2005
...And Here's Part Two
"False equivalency syndrome" is a major affliction in American corporate media. Here's how it works: 1) Republicans/conservatives are caught doing something wrong. 2) However, for various reasons (such as the fact that most media owners are conservative, and the GOP has given media corporations lots of favors over the years -- such as killing the Fairness Doctrine and gutting the FCC's anti-trust laws), the media doesn't want to do articles/reports/etc. that attack only Republicans -- even if the Republicans are the only wrongdoers in question -- so: 3) The media create a bogus example of Democrats/progressives doing the same thing and pretend that it's just as bad as (or usually, worse than) what the Republicans actually did. Here's the latest example: Longtime Eschaton commenter "Live Free or Die" spotted this Washington Post article. The gist of the article is that with regard to Social Security, the Republicans don't want the word "privatization" used while Democrats allegedly don't want the word "crisis" used. But the problem with the analogy is that the Republicans came up with both words. The current Washington Post ombudsman is Michael Getler. You can reach him by e-mail at ombudsman@washpost.com or by phone at 202-334-7582. And you can write a letter to the editor at letters@washpost.com.
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