The Atlantic‘s James Fallows thinks the Washington Post‘s homepage headline for this story on Mitt Romney’s perceived campaign gaffes — “Errors hurting Romney effort, some in GOP say” — is “charming” because it reveals a lot about “our craft, that of journalism, and the contortions we go through to abide by what we think are the rules.”
Fallows clearly believes the headline is another example of journalism’s “problem” with false balance — the idea that competing points of view must be granted equal weight in news stories, even when one side clearly doesn’t deserve it. (And who determines which side deserves to be discounted?)
I understand there’s a great deal of handwringing surrounding journalism’s “view from nowhere,” but I fail to see how a story in which Romney’s political allies go on the record to criticize his campaign fits that narrative.
That used to be called “news.” Or am I missing something?
A Few Things Considered ... 