By Erich Vieth on October 04th, 2008
Campbell Brown’s warning about parity
CNN Anchor Campbell Brown thinks parity is overrated, according to a recent NYT article:
“As journalists, and certainly for me over the last few years, we’ve gotten overly obsessed with parity, especially when we’re covering politics,” Ms. Brown said. “We kept making sure each candidate got equal time — to the point that it got ridiculous in a way.”
“So when you have Candidate A saying the sky is blue, and Candidate B saying it’s a cloudy day, I look outside and I see, well, it’s a cloudy day,” she said. “I should be able to tell my viewers, ‘Candidate A is wrong, Candidate B is right.’ And not have to say, ‘Well, you decide.’ Then it would be like I’m an idiot. And I’d be treating the audience like idiots.”
This sunny/cloudy day argument is so idiotic. What if the two politicians and Ms. Brown are on a phone teleconferences. Now lets say that Ms Brown is in Seattle, Politician A is in Bangor and Politician B is in Phoenix. Politician A says it’s raining, politician B says it sunny and they aren’t lying. Ms Brown sees rain outside the studios and declares Politician A to be right. Viewers watching the show in Las Vegas probably realize they are all talking about local condition and probably think Ms. Brown is making a joke.
This is because the viewers still have a credible sources of information for a different point of view. They can look out their own windows and decide for themselves.
However, when the only source of information is through the media, then for a reporter to withhold vital information is not only very irresponsible, but changes the information from news to opinion and propaganda.