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Fair and balanced — 11 Comments

  1. I like fair. I like balanced.
    The most interesting news is about policy: filibuster or not; up or down; reform Social Security or not; vote Kerry or Bush (or nobody — telling the truth).

    Every policy has good results and bad results; and as it’s made there are probabilities of those results.
    Balance means talking about good AND bad, of both positions. Only talking about the bad of Iraq after US action, without noting the good, is unbalanced. Not mentioning the bad that would be, like Darfur, w/o US action, is unbalanced.

    Fair implies similar effort at the truth. Intense scrutiny of Bush’s NG records, while not mentioning that he did sign a Form 180 which Kerry has not signed, seems unfair. I think Marc Cooper’s anti-Kerry and super-anti-Bush is more fair than most.

    The press has failed to note that the policy of US leaving Vietnam meant SE Asian genocide. This has been both unfair and unbalanced.

    I wish more folk would follow generalizations with at least one specific example, to confirm I understand what is being talked about.

    I post many of my comments on my blog (see my Michael Totten comments/ posts); this one too. [Often copy comment to Word for spell check first, and a monthly long journal record.]

    I also like Honest and Transparent — and for much news, the honesty/ accuracy is more important than “fairness”. But since the most interesting issues are often the uncertain future, honesty about the future collapses into honesty about guesses about the future.

  2. Neo, you’ve nailed it again.

    I don’t have a problem with the term “fair” as it connotes an appeal to our instinctive sense of justice – as long as we bolster that “fairness” with a firm framework of ethics and logic.

    Your post gets to the heart of the problem with the MSM; and you’ve made the important connection between a misguided sense of “balance” and the pernicious influence of moral relativism.

  3. After more thought and reading, my position on your question is refined somewhat.

    Fair and Balanced seems a more appropriate goal for a debate. Let everyone (or most) speak for fairness, and include differing positions for balance. This is what I want for a discussion, but not what I want for news reporting.

    Most blogs tend to be individual participants in various debates. If they contain inaccurate information or invalid arguements, their impact on the discussion will be marginalized.

    Regarding news reporting, I much prefer Honest and Accurate for goals. This concept was well described by Keith in Roger Simon’s comments section; see http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2005/05/pajamas_media_q.php#c50727

    BTW, I like your posts and wish to encourage you in your new world. Your personal values may not have changed much, but certainly your close friends will.

  4. Congratulations on the good weather. You’ve had a long wait for it. Here, we are pulling up pansies and planting summer annuals. Hope you guys get to have a summer…

    Meanwhile, I don’t understand what “fair” means. Is is “truthful”, ie, getting as many viewpoints as possible? Does it mean, as a five-year old might say, “absolutely evenly and perfectly divided so that I get more than anyone else?

    To me, “fair” is an immature, delayed-development word.

    “Balanced” has somewhat more hope. But not much. Give me the pre-Freudian days, when no one bothered. If you wanted one pov, you read a particular newspaper. If you wanted another, you read something else.

    In fact, newspapers and periodicals aren’t much help at all unless you’ve taken the trouble to learn history, including the history of economics, rhetoric, at least a smattering of one foreign language, and all the mythology you can handle. Maybe throw in a Logic 101 class. Only then are you prepared to read a newspaper with any kind of discernment.

    Fair and balanced? Bah. If you’re a ‘journalist’tell me what makes you mad and I’ll know enough about your biases to decide whether or not to read any further.

    Paul Krugman and MoDo are cases in point.

  5. I concur with your assessment of “fair and balanced” as it relates to news reporting. I personally prefer “fair and accurate” when I read news reports. To me, “fair” means both (or all) sides of a story will be interviewed, not just one perspective. “Accurate” has much to do with the integrity of the presentation of the facts of the story. It also means the facts will not be distorted or partially reported in an attempt to slant a story.

  6. Truth is, Neo, your posts are like a favorite TV show…so reruns are often as good or better the second time around!

  7. Just putting up something everyday is a massive chore, one I can’t particularly manage. I’ve never seen you write anything that wasn’t well done, comments or otherwise, so just keep up the good work, and by the way, thanks.

  8. Actually, it is quite common to use one’s comments from other blogs in a post. It also makes sense, in that you probably have the thoughts rolling around in your head and you want to get them on your blog to get a discussion going. That said, I agree with your point about “fair and balanced.” It is a type of contradiction that arises frequently in the political realm. Similar to what happens when you cleave the concept of “equality” into distinct entities. In one simple split, you are left with equality of opportunity and equality of outcome, which are hostile to one another (as are fair and balanced). Of course, you could avoid the contradiction by redefining the terms to meet your needs and running with it.

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