Fairlanced

Like so many, I'm --- shall we say -- skeptical of Fox's "Fair and Balanced" claims. (Especially once FAIR took the network apart.) It does seem true (as digamma suggests), at least anecdotally from my limited experience in watching cable news, they're more likely to air an extremist (and then shout him or her down). You're probably better speculating on the motives than I am, but it shouldn't escape mention that "balance" means different things to different people.

I have long fought the urge to make a Star Wars analogy on this issue, but if I may: George Lucas has taunted fans for two prequels about the prophesy of Anakin "bringing balance to the force." What that means by the time Episode IV rolls around is that there are two Jedi and two Sith -- very balanced, if you ask me. As many Democrats presume to speak on behalf of the entire "left" (and Republicans for their counterparts), there's this marginalization of new ideas, especially if they stand outside standard political dogma. Thus, "token liberal" and "token conservative" make for a complete picture, in some worlds. This plays right into the egotism of the sort Ralph Nader attacks.

The other underlying question in considering balance is, where is the political center now? It strikes me that's somewhere in the common ground between Bush and Kerry, as the two are polling on-and-off neck-and-neck and around 47% each. I think the modern American centrist is overwhelmingly concerned about security, believes in fighting as long as it takes in Iraq, strongly backs hawkish antiterrorist methods and the conservative allied governments that sponsor them(Israel, Russia), pushes tax cuts as an economic cure despite large deficits, calls for strong accountability but underfunding of federal social programs, opposes nationalized single-payer health care popular in Europe and Canada, and supports trade agreements hated by unions. Could it just be that the modern centrist (at least among people who bother to vote wit any regularity) is conservative by yesterday's standards? Maybe, then, Fox is playing it relatively balanced, if you consider that the left -- largely abandoned by Democrats and disorganized otherwise -- are deemed meaningless on our own.