In Which Jung prewrites AtD's epigraph

[Joseph Tracy]

I just want to say that I understand and fully agree that the Republicans stand relatively alone in certain areas of fact free nonsense and that they seem to rally round fascist nut jobs. And that  NPR in particular and many other so-called journalists often go out of their way to make strained equivalencies.  My problem is that the 2 parties are working for the same corporate interests and that they have the same military, financial markets,  and energy policies.   
On Mar 15, 2012, at 3:55 PM, David Morris wrote:

> http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_03/false_equivalence_watch_richar036022.php
> 
> James Fallows, Jonathan Chait and others have done much to open our
> eyes to the wondrous breadth and diversity of false equivalence in
> American journalism—that is, the media’s insistent efforts to match
> any mention of egregious lying by a member of one political party with
> an example from the other party, no matter how mild or incomparable,
> in order to avoid charges of “bias.” As someone who has dabbled in
> this field of press criticism, I fancy myself having a pretty good eye
> for new varieties of the phenomenon, and, in all modesty, think I’ve
> discovered one.
> 
> It can be found in Richard Cohen’s Washington Post column today,
> entitled “Sarah Palin’s Foolishness Ruined U.S. Politics,” about the
> HBO movie “Game Change.” Cohen documents how the aggressive ignorance
> and petulant truth denial exhibited by John McCain’s 2008 running mate
> seems to have paved the way for similar candidates in the 2012 race,
> among them Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, with Rick
> Santorum [...] By the end of the column Cohen raises the (for him, I
> guess) uncomfortable fact that all of his examples come from the
> Republican side of the aisle. And it is here, in a feat of remarkable
> imagination, that Cohen deploys what I believe to be (and
> professionals in the field, please correct me if I’m wrong) a
> never-before-seen version of the genre, one that might be called the
> If-Not-Now-Then-Later False Equivalence:
> 
> "So far, the Palin effect has been limited to the GOP. Surely, though,
> there lurks in the Democratic Party potential candidates who have seen
> Palin and taken note. Experience, knowledge, accomplishment—these no
> longer may matter. They will come roaring out of the left proclaiming
> a hatred of all things Washington, including compromise. The movie had
> it right. Sarah Palin changed the game."
> 
> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 1:51 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> One of the biggest lies promoted by the media is the false equivalency which says
>> "both sides do it," which excuses all manner of lies.