danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

Why do I think politicians who tell outright lies and base their campaigns on said lies can get away with it?

Well, they’re probably counting on the common practice in the news media of being “balanced” at all costs. You know how it goes: If a politician says that black is white, the news report doesn’t say that he’s wrong, it reports that “some Democrats say” that he’s wrong. Or a grotesque lie from one side is paired with a trivial misstatement from the other, conveying the impression that both sides are equally dirty.

They’re probably also counting on the prevalence of horse-race reporting, so that instead of the story being “McCain campaign lies,” it becomes “Obama on defensive in face of attacks.”

You can believe the media is biased because Keith Olberman is obviously liberal.  But if you have read a paper, or watched a national newscast you have seen exactly what Paul Krugman is talking about above.

Filed under: Current Events, Politics, Rantings on September 13th, 2008