Monday, February 21, 2005
Balancing Stuff Corporate Media Style
Eli at Left I on the News took the trouble to transcribe a quote from FAIR founder Jeff Cohen that was in a Peter Hart piece in the Extra! Update newsletter. It's kind of amusing in a depressing way ... or maybe vice-versa:
The ed. note in there is Eli not me, but I left it in because I thought it was funny...
In 2002, I was an on-air commentator at MSNBC, and also senior producer on the Donahue show, the most-watched program on the channel. In the last months of the program, before it was terminated on the eve of the Iraq War, we were ordered by management that every time we booked an antiwar guest, we had to book two pro-war guests. If we booked two guests on the left, we had to book three on the right. At one meeting, a producer suggested booking Michael Moore and was told that she would need to book three right-wingers for balance [Ed. note - well, he is rather hefty!]. I considered suggesting Noam Chomsky as a guest, but our studio couldn't accomodate the 86 right-wingers we would have needed for balance.
The ed. note in there is Eli not me, but I left it in because I thought it was funny...
