Sadly, this fairly well summarizes where TV news is at today:
That kind of air-kiss coverage is typical of cable news, where the premium is on speed and spirited banter rather than painstaking accuracy. But it has grown into a lazy habit: anchors do not referee – they act as if their reportage is fair and accurate as long as they have two opposing spokesmen on any issue.
As long as the news is putting on two sides to the argument, it is being “fair and balanced.” Reporters need not do the research necessary to sort through which points are credible and which aren’t. Just frame the debate as a he said/he said type issue and give both sides an opportunity to do some shouting.
UPDATE: Atrios has the transcript of the Daily Show segment which covered this ground last night.
Related reading–E.J. Dionne:
Alas, this is the classic course a smear campaign takes. A group throws up accusations that, when subjected to scrutiny, prove to be full of holes. Supporters of the attack campaign say that, well, those charges may not pan out, but there must be something here. Let’s just keep attacking.
The media have to do more than “he said/he said” reporting. If the charges don’t hold up, they don’t hold up. And, yes, now that John Kerry’s life during his twenties has been put at the heart of this campaign just over two months from Election Day, the media owe the country a comparable review of what Bush was doing at the same time and the same age.
If all the stories about what Kerry did in Vietnam are not balanced by serious scrutiny of Bush in the Vietnam years, the media will be capitulating to a right-wing smear campaign. Surely our nation’s editors and producers don’t want to send a signal that all you have to do to set the media’s agenda is spend a half-million bucks on television ads.
Well, we hope they don’t. But that’s exactly what has happened this month.