Tuesday, March 15, 2005
This Is Unbelieveable
Frequent Eschaton commenter bkny posted this on Eschaton today:
richard cohen has a very good column this a.m. about cspan's 'fairness' doctrine carried to the extreme.I'd say something, but The Daily Show already has:
C-SPAN's Balance of the Absurd
C-SPAN's Balance of the Absurd
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A23
You will not be seeing Deborah Lipstadt on C-SPAN. The Holocaust scholar at Emory University has a new book out ("History on Trial"), and an upcoming lecture of hers at Harvard was scheduled to be televised on the public affairs cable outlet. The book is about a libel case brought against her in Britain by David Irving, a Holocaust denier, trivializer and prevaricator who is, by solemn ruling of the very court that heard his lawsuit, "anti-Semitic and racist." No matter. C-SPAN wanted Irving to "balance" Lipstadt.
STEWART: Here's what puzzles me most, Rob. John Kerry's record in Vietnam is pretty much right there in the official records of the U.S. military, and haven't been disputed for 35 years? CORDDRY: That's right, Jon, and that's certainly the spin you'll be hearing coming from the Kerry campaign over the next few days. STEWART: Th-that's not a spin thing, that's a fact. That's established. CORDDRY: Exactly, Jon, and that established, incontrovertible fact is one side of the story. STEWART: But that should be--isn't that the end of the story? I mean, you've seen the records, haven't you? What's your opinion? CORDDRY: I'm sorry, my opinion? No, I don't have "o-pin-i-ons." I'm a reporter, Jon, and my job is to spend half the time repeating what one side says, and half the time repeating the other. Little thing called "objectivity"--might wanna look it up some day. STEWART: Doesn't objectivity mean objectively weighing the evidence, and calling out what's credible and what isn't? CORDDRY: Whoa-ho! Well, well, well--sounds like someone wants the media to act as a filter! [high-pitched, effeminate] "Ooh, this allegation is spurious! Upon investigation this claim lacks any basis in reality! Mmm, mmm, mmm." Listen buddy: not my job to stand between the people talking to me and the people listening to me.As it was with John O'Neil's Two-Lie Crew, so it is with discredited Holocaust deniers. And the mainstream press wonders why we jump down their throats all the time.
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