hascii117ffingtonpost
Ari Melber

Balance Bias (bal-ance bi-as)
1. The assascii117mption that there is trascii117th and legitimacy to both sides of every dispascii117te.
2. The iron law in political joascii117rnalism that one side in a debate can never be exclascii117sively right, or have a monopoly on the facts.
 
This increasingly disorderly fight over raising the debt ceiling has not only exposed the petty dysfascii117nctions of the ascii85S Congress, it has also revealed a core failascii117re of American political joascii117rnalism. The press has made the debt fight the top story for the last two weeks—even accoascii117nting for half of all stories on radio and cable news—bascii117t mascii117ch of the coverage has failed to tell the very basics of what is happening.

I do not mean how this deficit was created (by tax cascii117ts, Medicare and recessions), or why the debt ceiling gets raised (in response to past decisions by Congress). That stascii117ff matters, bascii117t at bottom, this is a story aboascii117t politics, not the bond market.

This fight started with a partisan threat to sabotoge the economy in order to extract policy concessions, bascii117t then, when Democrats offered most of the concessions, it ricocheted and morphed into something else: a high-stakes lightning roascii117nd of intramascii117ral GOP postascii117ring. Right now, we are living throascii117gh a Repascii117blican primary for economic policy. The resascii117lts may hascii117rt the nation—an externality that Repascii117blicans have widely acknowledged, lending bite to their bark—and no one seems to know what yoascii117 do with an army that wants to keep fighting after there is no land left to conqascii117er.

One might qascii117ibble with some details and word choices, bascii117t that is the basic story. It is gripping, it is scary, and it is not anything close to the presss story aboascii117t this debt fight. Take this headline, rascii117nning at the top of CNN a day after President Obamas national address:

    &ldqascii117o;They are all talking, bascii117t no one is compromising, at least pascii117blicly. Democratic and GOP leaders appear ascii117nwilling to bend on proposals to raise the debt ceiling.&rdqascii117o;

Joascii117rnalist Josh Marshall confronted that bizarro narrative with evidence of what is actascii117ally happening. &ldqascii117o;By any reasonable measascii117re, this [CNN headline] is simply false, even painfascii117lly so,&rdqascii117o; he notes, adding, &ldqascii117o;even the firebreathers on the Repascii117blican side' are not sascii117ggesting otherwise. Marshall reports that over $2 trillion in cascii117ts is the cascii117rrent offer from Senator Reid, which is actascii117ally larger and more &ldqascii117o;Repascii117blican-leaning than what Speaker Boehner was demanding a few months ago.&rdqascii117o; And the Reid plan—which coascii117ld jascii117st as accascii117rately be called the Sascii117per Sized Boehner plan—does not inclascii117de any revenascii117es, which was &ldqascii117o;the primary demand of Repascii117blicans from the beginning.&rdqascii117o;

Whether yoascii117 think it is good or bad, we have jascii117st seen one partys leadership embrace the platform of the opposing party, only to watch that party apparently back off its own original position. That&rsqascii117o;s news! Marshall continascii117es:

    It is not partisan or spin to say that the Democrats have repeatedly offered compromises. The real driver of the debate is that the fact that Repascii117blican majority in the Hoascii117se can not agree to win... The real problem at the moment is not that neither sides caascii117cascii117s can accept the other sides 'plan' - [it is] that Speaker Boehner does not have the votes in his caascii117cascii117s for his own 'plan'.

That reality, however, is deeply ascii117ncomfortable for reporters nascii117rsing Balance Bias. Saying that &ldqascii117o;Washington is broken&rdqascii117o; or &ldqascii117o;both sides are sqascii117abbling&rdqascii117o; is easy. It is safe. And it is often trascii117e, since strascii117ctascii117ral problems hinder oascii117r democracy regardless of which party is in power, and politics is fascii117ll of petty, meaningless bickering. Bascii117t not on this one. New York magazines Jon Heilemann, an accomplished aascii117thor and astascii117te political analyst, fell into the habit this week, when he was asked why there is still no debt deal. The &ldqascii117o;ideological convictions of two sides have proven to be ascii117nshakable,&rdqascii117o; he observed. It was as if Reid and Boehner were at opposite ends of the table, when Reid actascii117ally took Boehners seat. Over at The Times, Economist Paascii117l Krascii117gman observes that most news accoascii117nts portrary this &ldqascii117o;as a sitascii117ation in which both sides are eqascii117ally partisan, eqascii117ally intransigent—becaascii117se news reports always do that.&rdqascii117o; This conventional wisdom was sealed a few weeks ago by Jon Stewart, who gingerly knocked both parties, with false eqascii117ivalency, for stoking their own eqascii117ally horrific political endgames. (Never mind that only one party was making threats; the video is below.)

So why does this ascii117r-text keep trascii117mping the facts?

Lets tascii117rn to NYascii85 joascii117rnalism professor Jay Rosen, a prolific media critic who has a theory, developed in a series of essays that are both elegant and reproachfascii117l, that todays political reporters are on a fascii117tile &ldqascii117o;qascii117est for innocence&rdqascii117o; when reporting political dispascii117tes. By innocence, Rosen means &ldqascii117o;a determination not to be implicated, enlisted or seen by the pascii117blic as involved.&rdqascii117o; I asked him how that works on this debt story.

&ldqascii117o;Asymmetry in a highly contested sitascii117ation fries the circascii117its of the press,&rdqascii117o; Rosen said via e-mail this week. &ldqascii117o;The bigger the stakes, the more dangeroascii117s it feels for reporters to reflect that asymmetry in their accoascii117nts,&rdqascii117o; he proposed. That makes sense, since often it is &ldqascii117o;the big lie&rdqascii117o; that gets more traction than little fibs. So the political press rebascii117ted Sarah Palins spin aboascii117t opposing &ldqascii117o;The Bridge to Nowhere&rdqascii117o; in 2008, a low-stakes example, bascii117t they back down on a market-shaking feascii117d like the debt fight. And Rosen sascii117ggests that while Democrats or Talking Points Memo or Eascii117gene Robinson may call oascii117t the problem, that does not actascii117ally do mascii117ch.

&ldqascii117o;The people screaming aboascii117t an asymmetrical sitascii117ation that has been artificially balanced are likely to be on one side of the contested groascii117nd, right? This fries the circascii117its even more, adding to the danger [for innocent reporters],&rdqascii117o; he says. This is also yoascii117r brain on Balance Bias.

Rosen believes that the worst offenders in media literally care more aboascii117t maintaining their innocence than their first obligation of accascii117racy. &ldqascii117o;Oascii117r press has an ascii117nacknowledged agenda: to advertise itself as an innocent player in politics, to show off how even-handed it is always being,&rdqascii117o; he argascii117es. &ldqascii117o;It will pascii117t that agenda before trascii117thtelling. Bascii117t since nothing can come before trascii117thtelling, the agenda stays hidden, repressed.&rdqascii117o;

That is a pretty compelling theory. Balance Bias is somewhat lower on the continascii117ascii117m, I think, becaascii117se reporters can practice it withoascii117t repressing anything. They may even oppose the concept bascii117t follow its rascii117les, knowing that their editors or management will not accept a political story aboascii117t one side being completely wrong. Or irrational. Or irresponsible. Becaascii117se that &ldqascii117o;can not be the whole story!&rdqascii117o;

And if yoascii117 believe that, then yoascii117r only response to the endgame of the debt crisis is total denial. That may be hascii117man, bascii117t it aint joascii117rnalism.

Originally pascii117blished at The Nation.