In the wake of the failed electronic lynching of Shirley Sherrod by Andrew Breitbart, Anderson Cooper has actually done some admirable reporting. He has spent considerable time on the issue and exposed Breitbart for the contemptible worm that he is. But for two nights now, he has repeatedly promoted this lazy and irresponsible false equivalence between the tactics of the right and those on the left, saying again and again and again that "those on the left and the right" engage in these tactics of presenting highly edited information and outright lies to smear people and score political points. Anderson, you need to stop saying this. It just ain't true.
This is a big story for a lot of reasons, not least of which because it so plainly proves the existence of a "vast, right wing conspiracy" that engages in the promotion of outright lies. That Breitbart got caught so blatantly should cause the media to re-examine their own complicity in this tactic, which has been going on for 20 years. They should be saying, "come to think of it, there really was nothing to that Whitewater thing, which consumed 8 years of a presidency" or "Hmmm. Breitbart was in on that Acorn deal, maybe we should take another look" or "what percentage of the shit posted on Drudge is totally false." And on and on, from yellow cake to birth certificates, the right has simply adopted lying as their prime Modus Operandi. Putting this in context and exposing it is actually a giant story waiting to happen. Still waiting, because either you or your producers once again got timid and didn't want to look partisan by calling bullshit on the Goebbels like lie factory that is the right wing in America today.
Instead, you mask otherwise good reporting in this swamp of objectivity by saying the left does it too, and not just once, but a dozen times a broadcast. To listen to you, the left in America is just as guilty as the right of promoting lies and smears, engaging in personal destruction and rampaging around blinded by ideology. Now, it's true, I'm a lefty. Like most others at this site, I place myself somewhere on the left wing of the Democratic Party. But, having hung out at this site for the past 6 or 7 years, I could not think of a single instance where those on the left had edited tape to smear anyone, or knowingly promoted a lie into the mainstream media. Quite the contrary actually, because if you publish shoddy or false information here, people will call you on it immediately. And when someone unwittingly posts something false or misleading and it's pointed out, they retract the entry and apologize. Otherwise, Anderson, it's true stuff we expose, like there were no WMD in Iraq, he really did say Maccaca, they really were torturing people, senators really do say stupid racist jokes when they think they are alone.
So, Anderson Cooper, I call you out to expose such widespread practices on the left. You are all about journalism and integrity and the "TRUTH," here's your chance. Prove that "both left and right" are guilty of this. I don't think you can, because I don't think that's the truth. And when you can't back up your claims of moral equivalency, I challenge you to admit it. And then I challenge you, in the spirit of Morrow and Woodward and whoever your hero's are, to report the real story, about the lie factory echo chamber, about how "death panels" and birth certificates and reverse racism and the constant stream of trash flowing from the right wing is really part of the same beast, and it is in fact, literally, destroying our democracy. That's a show I would watch, Anderson.