dagblog - Comments for "Ezra Klein Gets Honest About "Balance""

On the other hand there are

Ramona — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 19:05:59 +0000

On the other hand there are many in the blogosphere, including on these very pages, who work diligently to flush out the truth in a story without resorting to "raw, unedited sources." I don't know of any who go after reporters for doing their jobs. Reporters aren't opinion writers, and most writers, even in the blogosphere, know that.

I don't consider pointing out

acanuck — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 18:55:18 +0000

In reply to I'd like to add something

I don't consider pointing out inaccuracies in a speech spinning. The political speech, unlike an interview, is designed to let the speaker string together whoppers without a chance for embarrassing follow-up questions. Stenography, in that case, is the coward's way out.

I agree with you. I tried to

acanuck — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 18:43:29 +0000

In reply to I think all of you are

I agree with you. I tried to cover that point with "sometimes one side are such blatant liars that you have to toss that conditioning out the window."

I do think it's significant (and crucial for democracy) that some members of the media are finally waking up to their own malignant role in letting those blatant lies go unchallenged and unchecked.

Klein is, I admit, engaging in a bit of a cop-out by saying, "Hey, they conditioned that attitude into us," without noting what eager accomplices most of the media have been in embracing that conditioning.

I'd like to add something

artappraiser — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 17:08:02 +0000

In reply to I think all of you are

I'd like to add something about the classic "stenography" complaint about journalists. I've always found it extremely ironic that so many in the blogosphere who prefer to use raw, unedited sources to figure out a story: document dumps, raw video, transcripts, etc., at the same time decry attempts of reporters to just give a summary of what two political opponents said, unfiltered. That in that case, they would prefer the reporter put another layer of spin on the "transcript."

I think all of you are

artappraiser — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 16:57:14 +0000

In reply to Ezra Klein Gets Honest About "Balance"

I think all of you are missing the main point of this essay, picking out stuff that refers to your own favorite peccadilloes about the press and not seeing what he's trying to say:

he's "confessing" that he just admitted to himself that Ryan, and the Romney campaign, are liars like he hasn''t experienced before in our politics:

After rereading Ryan’s speech, I went back to Sarah Palin’s 2008 convention address. Perhaps, I thought, this is how these speeches always are. But Palin’s criticisms, agree or disagree, held up. “This is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state Senate.” True. She accused Obama of wanting to “make government bigger” and of intending to “take more of your money.” That’s not how the Obama campaign would have explained its intentions, but the facts are the facts, and they did have plans to grow the size of government and raise more in tax revenues. Palin said that “terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay” and “he wants to meet them without preconditions,” which was true enough.

that

This has been a central challenge during this election.

that the Romney campaign is not just seeing things differently, not just spinning facts, but just making facts up to create an imaginary phantom to run against.

He even gives examples of the kind of advocacy argument they could make against the Obama presidency that he would be glad to give equal time:

For instance: Obama really has expanded the size and generosity of the food stamps program. He really has been picking winners and losers in the energy sector. He really does intend to raise taxes on the rich. He really does foresee the federal government spending more a decade from now than it was spending five years ago. He really did push an unelected board of health-care bureaucrats to make decisions about Medicare reimbursement rates. He really did want to raise the price of dirty energy. He really hasn’t released a plan that would ever balance the budget. He really did break his pledge not to raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 when he signed the Affordable Care Act.

He's telling his readers that the Romney campaign has changed the game. That he's used to it being political war rooms spinning narratives against each other using cherry-picked facts--which after all is an advocacy system, no different than in our courtrooms and in democracies everywhere --but Romney/Ryan are starting with the narrative and just making up the facts to fit it. That it's not even possible for journalists to play court stenographer with this team, because they aren't playing the courtroom game, they are playing a fairy tales or science fiction game.

A confession doesn't always

Ramona — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 16:22:57 +0000

In reply to Maybe I am just being too

A confession doesn't always mean of wrong-doing.

Confession (n.): acknowledgment; avowal; admission: a confession of incompetence.

I agree with the rest of your comment. Fair and balanced reporting doesn't have to mean he has to compare it to the other side in order to be accurate.

Maybe I am just being too

A Guy Called LULU — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:00:18 +0000

In reply to I have to agree with acanuck.

Maybe I am just being too picky about words, but I think you also mislabel Klein's piece when you call it a 'confession'. That implies revealing the truth about something he had done wrong. Maybe call his statement a 'lament'. What he is doing is bemoaning the fact that while he wishes to be seen as an honest analyst, an accurate reporter, an ethical observer, he will, in fact be seen as one sided if he comments honestly about the dishonesty of the two sides relative to each other.

Klein wishes fair, honest reporting could be more balanced because accurate reporting make him appear to be a partisan hack attacking the Romney campaign unfairly. For that to be the case, though, the facts would need be more balanced than they are. Klein laments that:

So far in this campaign, you can look fair, or you can be fair, but you can’t be both.

I have to agree with acanuck.

Ramona — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 11:32:00 +0000

In reply to Ezra Klein Gets Honest About "Balance"

I have to agree with acanuck. I thought it was a pretty honest confession from someone who may be a blogger but has a background in journalism. They're trained to look at both sides and what Ezra is saying is that sometimes you have to throw that out the window and recognize that condemning the actions of one side's egregious behavior better serves a public who has become maybe too accustomed to "He said. . .yeah, but he said. . ."

Klein is not "apologizing"

acanuck — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 04:42:38 +0000

In reply to Ezra Klein Gets Honest About "Balance"

Klein is not "apologizing" for the earlier WaPo piece enumerating the lies in Ryan's speech. He's confessing that he was wrong for initially opposing it on the grounds that it appeared (to him) one-sidedly critical.

Don't condemn him for finally recognizing that journalists (himself included) have been conditioned to want to give both sides equal praise and blame -- and that sometimes one side are such blatant liars that you have to toss that conditioning out the window. More bloggers, columnists and reporters need to come to that realization.

He's saying, quite explicitly, that when dealing with the Romney-Ryan campaign, "looking" fair is not the fair thing to do.

Reread the entire column, DF.