Friday, August 12, 2005

FAIR AND BALANCED

Balance, in this article about the John Roberts fight in The Liberal New York Times, means quoting three people who accuse the Democrats of anti-Catholic bigotry plus two people who praise the religious right's decision to make such charges -- while quoting only two people who defend the Democrats.

Oh, plus there's this:

Conservatives say the debate over Judge Roberts is an extension of a campaign begun two years ago, when conservative groups ran advertisements headlined "Catholics Need Not Apply," attacking Democrats for posing questions about the "fervent personal beliefs" of a Catholic nominee for a federal appeals court, William H. Pryor Jr., even though they did not explicitly mention his faith.

Because, I guess, a five-to-two imbalance of quoted speakers isn't deferential enough to the red-state readers the Times craves -- it's also necessary to throw in an accusation of bigotry the evidence for which is invisible to everyone but the right-wing complainants.

And while we're on the subject, let me state the obvious: The people who are whining about "religious litmus tests" in the case of Roberts are the same people who didn't want you to vote for Kerry because he's a pro-choice Catholic. I guess some religious litmus tests are more bigoted than others.

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