It’s not often I wake up and the first thing I say, no scream, is “f*** you!” but Cokie did it to me this morning. I turned on NPR (my only news source apart from kos, huff and a few other leftie websites) just in time to hear the regular Monday morning commentary chit chat between Cokie and Nat Review editor Jonah Goldberg (added a few months back for “balance” after Cokie had the nerve to express an actual personal opinion about we all know who.)
I’ve never heard a better/worse example of “even-handedness” before…no, actually I’ve heard it plenty of times, but this was textbook—both candidates have “weaknesses,” etc. But when Cokie described DC gridlock as one of the reasons people are supporting Trump, including Congress’s failure to pass Zika funding, she threw in the old reliable “both parties are at fault here.”
Really Cokie, really? Please share an example of the Democrats’ contribution to DC gridlock… [insert sound of crickets]…God, I am so freaking sick and tired of MSM false equivalency!!!
Of course the NPR anchor, whoever was wrangling the show this morning didn’t chime in to say anything factual, like “no, it’s completely and specifically the GOP strategy to deadlock Congress”—because that would prove NPR is “liberal” and “biased.” That’s when I yelled my expletive deleted I’m sure loud enough to wake the neighbors. (“There goes that crazy old guy in 4N again.”)
I was going to run to the computer that very moment to start venting, but I waited until the end of the discussion just in case any more moronities were tossed out in the name of “even-handedness”—and of course Goldberg made his contribution, sagely observing Trump “isn’t the bigot they’re making him out to be,” only that he’s playing “footsie” with the alt-right. He’s no Trump fan either, but again, the anchor didn’t point out the “C” on the housing applications, the “no black dealers in my casino,” the “they’re all rapists,” nothing that would factually point out that yes, Donald Trump is a bigot, and a big-time one, because that would prove next verse, same as the first…
So here I am, guts atwist, pulling my remaining hair out of my head at a media that refuses to acknowledge the GOP elephant in the room and state the fact that the would-be emperor has no morals, empathy or decency, and his opponent, no matter how flawed, does not match his repulsiveness one-for-one. (Long ago Alexander Cockburn described the ultimate example of media “even-handedness” would be a World War II reporter stating “reached in his bunker, Mr. Hitler denied the allegations.”)
Oh, and NPR: why don’t you give up with the “on the other hand” nonsense because it won’t help—no matter what you do, the right will still call you (and every other outlet that has the nerve not to obediently parrot the right-wing line) “liberal.” God, they’ve spent 40 years turning a proud, progressive adjective into a curse word, and they’ve succeeded mightily.