Everybody likes to criticize, and nobody's perfect. But there is such a thing as a perfect idea, that's beyond criticism. One such idea is "fair and balance." That is, if one is dealing with a contentious idea, let the contenders each have a "fair go." That's democracy, that's free speech, that's the American Way. Yes, there should be rules and decorum, but the basic idea of letting everyone have a voice is profound, and, well, perfect.
That was the heart of Fox News a decade ago, and it was a radical departure from the liberal paradigm of news being "administered" down to us hoi polloi by the likes of Dan Rather. Over at Fox, Roger Ailes said, in effect, "You might not trust us to cover the news. So to build your trust, we will be 'fair and balanced.' That is, we will cover both sides of an argument--or all sides." Over time, Ailes was confident, viewers would appreciate the idea of "we report, you decide." And Ailes was absolutely right.
That's a great model to stick to, and if you a journalist does stick to it, he or she is unlikely to go too far wrong. In American politics, of course, most of the time, arguments take place on one of two axes: liberal vs. conservative, Democratic vs. Republican. So there's a simple rule: If you put on a liberal Democratic talking head, make sure that he or she is rebutted by a conservative Republican talking head. That seems so fair, so elementary.
But not over at NBC. Everybody knows that Meredith Vieira is a liberal; she has spoken out against the Iraq war, among other political causes. OK, fine, it's a free country. But if she's going to do politics on "Today," she should be extra careful to be "fair and balanced"--the phrase may be copyrighted, but the idea is freely universal.
So did Vieira do that? Did she trust her viewers to listen to both sides? Did she let the fair-and-balanced presentation of the news play itself out. She could have, she should have. As Steve Martin would say, "BUT NO!!!!" Instead, Vieira and her producers stacked their show yesterday with not just a second liberal Democrat, James Carville, but a third, Paul Begala. That's correct: It wasn't one on one, left against right. It was three against zero.
Happily, NewsBusters was there, doing its job, ready to bust NBC. Thanks to NB's Geoffrey Dickens for catching this abuse of the public trust, this violation of the most elementary standards of fair & balanced journalism.
Oh wait, I forgot: Not everyone signed on to the "fair and balanced" idea. Some in the MSM still like to deliver news the old way, the liberal top-down-take-your-lefty-medicine way.
And that's what reminds me to say, "Thanks again, Fox News!" Maybe eventually the rest of the media will get the idea of being fair and balanced. But until then, thankfully, we have FNC.
