|
The media assertions that F911 only tells one side strongly resembles an argument I had a couple of weeks ago. I work in print media, for an unabashedly left-sympathetic newspaper. After a journalism awards banquet thingy (at which we won "Best Weekly Paper" in the state, might I add with some smugness and pride) I ran into an old writer friend at my fave bar. Said writer congratulated me, and I him (he won something for the suburban weekly he works for), then after some conversation, he complained that the paper I work for was "too far to the left" and was thus "unbalanced." I found this odd, to say the least, since both he and I are farther to the left personally than my paper is.
My only answer to that was "Fuck balance. When the dailies and broadcast are balanced, then there's no need for us. We are in fact the 'equal time' that the mainstream NEVER gives our viewpoint."
It hit me shortly after I said it that roughly the same phrase used to be Rush Limbaugh's rationalization for his thoroughly extremist broadcasts - that the media was so "liberal" dominated (laughable, I know) that he was equal time, and was under no obligation to give voice to opposing views except to skewer them.
All this got me thinking - the left-enough Salon.com employs (employed?) Andrew Sullivan, The Nation runs essays by right-wingers every so often, I could go on and on with examples of this, but there are no examples of the right's utterly dominant media giving voice to a leftist analyst (unless he or she's outnumbered on the panel by a factor of at least two or three - the Mike Malloy ambush by John Kasich and that horrible, horrible fucker Hugh Hughley comes to mind).
So why do we bother? We're never going to be treated properly by these people, only abused. Why does what little that exists of our media feel the need for this outreach to the viewpoint that not only dominates, but that actively hates, mocks and abuses us?
We need to reclaim the "equal time" meme, starting right now. Michael Moore's spectacular success with F911 gives us a fabulous window of opportunity to do so.
|