When fairness becomes a lie

[Memekiller]

Here's an essay on how the media's desire for "fairness" stiffs Dems for their statesmanship and allows repubs to lie with impunity...

http://www.whoslying.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=552&Itemid=2

What bothers Kristof is not that liberals are being dishonest so much as rude. The 90s may have made me cynical, but what evidence does Kristof have beyond wishful thinking that not calling Bush a liar will appeal to swing voters? If that were true then some vindication would have come to those liberals who took the high road during the Clinton years in the hopes swing voters would grow so nauseous by the right’s toxic accusations about Clinton’s drug running that they’d run to the Democrats. Instead of balancing the rhetoric, the few liberal voices out there minimized the accusations of rape and murder by righteously claiming both sides were equally culpable for the intense partisanship Gingrich brought to Washington. No doubt these liberal voices then praised themselves for their “fairness” and “objectivity” for being willing to do so. Now that the Republicans control all three branches of government, I ask you, where did those swing voters go?

Now that liberals have finally risen up and refused to take these accusations of treason, etc. lying down, those same liberal milquetoasts again reserve their anger for the left, insisting that although they may be speaking the truth, the left ought to be as pleasant as possible when expressing it. But again, I ask you, where are the swing voters tilting now that the left has refused to unilaterally disarm?

Sadly, swing voters are not moved by pleasantries, but anger. A lesson the left is late in learning. When you can only be fair by insisting everyone is equally dishonest, you create an environment where lying pays and more trivial infractions are exaggerated for equal time. You can hardly blame the left for embracing polemicism. With Kristof on the case, what downside can there be in indulging in some hardball politics? How would they be harmed by doing what they’re accused of anyway? Threats from the right that the gloves would come off also fail to inspire: what possible line could they cross that they haven’t crossed already?

[Jim Sagle]

1. Martial law.

And I think that's what people like Kristof are afraid of. An underlying, unspoken threat has been emanating from the Republicans over the last four years: "Democrats, you'd BETTER lose or we'll kill you!"