We in the blogosphere have been screaming about “both sides” and false equivalence coverage since the days of Scoop and Movable Type. Today, an AM Joy segment on the shutdown made the best anti- “both-sides,” “false-equivalency” argument I’ve seen east of Driftglass and The Professional Left.* Here it is:
(The video below apparently is down. Here is the link. if you can copy an embed link, please send )
Joy and the panel criticized the New York Times front page story saying Trump “offers a compromise” and the WaPo editorial urging Democrats to “Make a deal. Save DACA,” for failing to point out:
- Trump ended DACA (and the TPS program);
- Trump killed the pre-shutdown deal;
- The MSM coverage doesn’t focus on Trump’s continual bad faith bargaining, and Democrats have no reason to believe he would abide by any deal;
- There’s little or no mention of McConnell’s bad faith — saying until Saturday he would only send a bill to the floor if both the House and Trump supported it — but now sending only Trump’s bill to the floor;
- The real dynamic is “McConnell is at the mercy of Trump, and Trump is at the mercy of Ann Coulter.”
And when a panelist mentioned the White House was depending on the right wing media, Joy immediately corrected him, saying, “No, it’s the mainstream media badgering Dems with ‘Why won’t you compromise?’ Why won’t you compromise?’”
The “two sides are not the Democrats and Republicans, but Trump and the far right,” she said, and the media won’t tell us that. In context, Trump’s offer is a hostage situation — ending DACA, then offering it back (though not permanently), and Dems are supposed to trust Trump to follow through. Yet it’s never characterized that way in the media.
This was a breath of fresh air — direct and unequivocal criticism of the MSM for pernicious “both sides” coverage — strong even by MSNBC standards.
More of this please.
*They are located in Springfield, IL.