False Equivalence in Media Reporting on the 2016 Election

Partisans are never happy with the media coverage of their candidates, and it's one of the Big Lies of 2016 that leftists never demonized folks like George W. Bush or Mitt Romney the way they've demonized Donald Trump this year. The assumption is that Trump is the worst Republican even, but frankly, to leftists, the GOP nominates Adolph Hitler every four years. So these people can just STFU.

It is true though that the leftist media does seem more unhinged than in years past, and I think that's largely because Trump's given voice to harsh partisans like the Alt Right hordes in ways that haven't been seen in recent presidential contests. So, we've seen a number of prominent press personalities come right out and advocate for partisan reporting favoring their side. The only difference this year is that media leftists aren't hiding their bias, again for the reason that Trump perhaps freaks them out more than usual. But it's not as though we haven't had the subterranean "JournoList" phenomenon subverting media coverage of elections in the past.

In any case, Liz Spayd, the Public Editor at the New York Times, tackles the problem, "The Truth About ‘False Balance’."