Can we discuss the equivalency given Elizabeth Edwards and Ann Coulter on the airwaves today?

Someone in my household just came in for the evening, heard a snippet from Dan Abrams on MSNBC, and said, "He's not giving equivalency to Edwards and Coulter!" And I said, yes, he is -- and equivalency has been given the two all day long.

This is the worst example yet of the insane insistence by the media that there is a Left side and a Right side to everything, and both must be given equal weight in coverage of any event or issue. No longer is there acknowledgment of simple right and wrong. Chris Matthews grins and relishes the Big Fight between Edwards and Coulter, which took place on his little show. There was no fight at all. Elizabeth Edwards pleaded for decency, and we laud her for her courage, but Coulter was unbowed, mocking and laughing at Edwards and her husband even as Elizabeth was on the phone.

This today verges on the edge of giving O.J. and his victim's families equivalency. Scott Peterson and the family of his dead wife and baby, equivalency.

What world are these media people living in? What if the son swept off the road had been their son? What kind of politics are they covering? What have we become?

that was braying

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1200043


(we posted a minute apart. GMTA!)

and I am very pleased not to be here standing alone.

But others have added important points as well -- that Coulter got an hour and Elizabeth a few continuously interrupted minutes, and that Matthews is trying to boost ratings while Coulter is hyping a book.

Really, though, is that any different from what the Edwardses are trying to do, with their campaign for the presidency? And yes, I mean "their" since I think this is a truly joint project for them. The fact that Matthews, and to a lesser extent Abrams, criticized them for trying to make political hay out of the confrontation was unfair, seeing as how he and Coulter were also trying to make hay out of it, if only a different kind.

Tansy Gold

of Hardball in the first place? Elizabeth Edwards was barely given 2 minutes to try to make her point while Coulter screamed over her. After the brief phone conversation, Coulter was again unopposed, and given free rein to spew her hate-filled talking points unopposed.

to push an agenda that is as far from the mainstream as Ann Coulter's. I don't believe that most Americans are as hateful and divisive as Coulter and yet she is given a forum time and time again to spew bigotry and hatred.

Has anyone given Michael Moore an ENTIRE HOUR to discuss his views on health care without an opposing viewpoint? And the idea of health care being a basic human right is one that I believe most Americans agree with.

The media seems to use the idea of giving "equal time" to both sides only when it supports a corporate, right-wing agenda. We all know how sparse that "equal time" was for anti-war voices in the lead up to Bush's invasion of Iraq.