SHADING THE TRUTH, PART 2….ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin explains the obvious to his troops on Friday:
The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done.
Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win.
We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn’t mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides “equally” accountable when the facts don’t warrant that.
Good for him. If one side lies more than the other, say so. It’s fake “objectivity” to pretend that ten big lies are the same thing as a couple of minor distortions. The media should be reporting what’s really going on, not inventing a false balance that doesn’t exist.
