Y'know, it feels like only yesterday that I wrote these words:
Q: What's more addictive than meth, more profitable than iPhones. more indestructible than Kevlar and easier to make than Top Ramen?
A: Garbage Both Siderist opinions.
"Both Sides Do It" is easily the biggest of the Big Lies. The Big Lie that enables all the little lies. From trying to sound smart at the office, to propping up an entire political media ecosystem, it's a lie that's perfect for all circumstances and occasions.
Since the very earliest days of the blogosphere, we Liberals have spilled tens of millions of pixels debunking the Big Lie of Both Sides Do It, week in and week out, year in and year out, decade in and decade out. And we have actually made some progress, so "Yay!" for us.
And yet, when cornered, what is still the first tool the worst people always reach for?
But it wasn't yesterday. It was two days ago. So there's that.
But it's also a variation of something I've been writing nearly every day for, Jesus Christ on a Fake ID, has it really been 19 years?
Yep. 19 years. Four presidential administrations. And practically from Day One I have been beating this tiny little drum of mine begging people to Please Pay Attention to this poisonous false-equivalence garbage that has saturated the media ecosystem like microplastics.
It's everywhere, like Strontium-90 in the milk.
It's democracy's retrovirus: the bad thing that would enable the other bad thing to kill us.
So today, fresh off the assembly line, NewsNation announced its brand new show.
Take it away Jay Rosen:
Nothing can kill the both-sides Sunday talk show, with each new one pretending to be the REAL both-sides show because finally someone had that light bulb moment and saw that what American viewers want is... both sides, fairly dealt! Here's the latest one. https://t.co/bgOagR0Jer
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) February 29, 2024
That new show is called “The Hill Sunday” it will be on NewsNation and anchored by a guy named Chris Stirewalt?
Where have I heard that name before?
Oh yeah, my aching archives!
The Dispatch is an outfit that was conjured into existence after the pro-Trump shitshow at Fox got to be too much even for Stephen Hayes and Jonah "Dought Pantsload" Goldberg, who scampered across town, started The Dispatch on SubStack, quickly raised six million dollars and were off to the races.
They hired rightwing religious nut David French from the National Review. French has since been hired by The New York Times (after he tidied up his resume and hastily disavowed some of his uglier bigotries) because there is always room on the Times payroll for one more Conservative creative typist.
They hired Sarah Isgur, former spokesperson for Donald Trump's Department of Justice where she defended the Trump administration's family separation policy, as well as Trump's travel ban. Isgur was also hired as an analyst by ABC news.
They hired Nick Catoggio is better known to you and I by his wingnut blogger pseudonym Allahpundit. He was also the former senior editor for the godawful Hot Air from its founding in 2006 through his resignation on September 2, 2022.
They hired Kevin D. Williamson, who, it seems, has always been going through some stuff.
And they hired this Fox News stooge named Chris Stirewalt, who now has his own show on NewsNation.
Here is how Variety is reporting this story, to which I am adding some gratuitous emphasis here and there:
Stirewalt is set to anchor a bid by upstart cable-news player NewsNation to insert itself into the Sunday-news field typically dominated by decades-old programs with strong video imprimaturs. The anchor believes viewers still yearn for something that tones down the red-versus-blue bickering that has become a bigger part of analysis and opinion programming.
“The underserved portion of the American news market are folks who are not looking for an emotional attachment or partisan cues for how to consume their news,” he says. “They are looking for something that seems like it’s trying to be fair, and I think that it’s a harder way to make a buck in the news business, for sure,” he adds, but “there is a lot left on the table in terms of Americans who have mostly tuned out the news because it’s just too much.”
In a world where the media's Both Siderist slop-trough is a horn of plenty that never runs runs dry, continuing to insist that Both Sides Don't will always be heresy.
And after 19 years, I remain a proud heretic.
1 comment:
I hear you on the Both sider frequency. Loud and clear.
Got to ask if there is a category for this natured dodge
that has been going on for a very long time.
Instance,
Congress fails to pass Ukraine aid, can't do their job.
But the fact is, house majority republicans refuse to take it up.
Or, ,
Government shutdown has happened because Congress cannot get their act together.
When, House majority republicans refuse to negotiate a a budget unless the democratic president resigns (or some hostage taking bullshit).
You see, when the GOP is responsible for government failure that harms Americans and such, they say it is congress in general (including Dems)
They do not do this when it pertains to Dems passing something like the Voter rights act in the Deem majority house but the GOP majority Senate or filibuster by GOP on the bill to kill it. Well, that is the failure of the Dems. Not "Congress".
See how that works? Is there a name for this like Both siderism is to both sider excuses.???
When a Dem president cannot get a GOP hostile Senate to hear his SCOTUS nominee, that is a weak Dem president unable to get things done. (not a hostile Senate GOP).
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