Smackie the Frog

Question -

Should the media always allow equal treatment to “both sides” of an argument?

I say no. I say that many times there is a correct side, and an incorrect side, and the media should be doing their job in exploring this.

I read this about Al Gore today. This is what made me think of it.

After the 2000 election, you may recall that he took a teaching position at Harvard (I think) at the school of journalism. You may also recall he left after a short time. Turns out he was lecturing the students about this very “bias” meme. He told them that it was their journalistic duty to not only to provide different points of view, but to *provide context* about those points of view — taking a stand about the falsity of an argument. That their job was not to provide a forum for two “sides” to talk, but to question and point out that one side’s arguments were actually not true if that was the case — and this is important, not to provide a forum for false information if the information was indeed false. Apparently the students, all of which have signed on the Goldbergian “Bias” meme, revolted and wouldn’t listen, and Gore eventually surrendered and left, defeated by the bias meme.

I’m so sick of all of this “every argument is valid and deserves equal time.” That’s just not true, and by giving every argument validity and equal time, the media gives a false impression about the way things actually are.