I should start giving a false equivalence award. Today I have for you a glaring example. In a column about how Romney lies, a DC-elitist pundit tells you that Obama lies, too.
False equivalence is when reporters and pundits in the “mainstream” news media feel they have to be “objective” to avoid seeming partisan. To achieve this they dig up nonsense in order to claim “both sides do it.” Example: Twelve Republican Senators in coordination say something absolutely terrible and vile, but an anonymous guy on the internet left a comment at an unknown liberal blog (that the blog’s author condemned and many of the other commenters suspect was a right-wing troll who does this all the time) saying something bad, too, so you see, voters, “both sides are the same” and you shouldn’t let this influence your vote. In fact, since both sides are the same you shouldn’t bother to vote at all, actually.
With no further ado I give you Richard Cohen, Mitt Romney, a man of falsehoods,
Time and time again, Romney has been called a liar during this campaign. (The various fact-checking organizations have had to work overtime on him alone.) … I watched, impressed. I admire a smooth liar, and Romney is among the best.
[. . .]
There are those who maintain that President Obama, too, is a liar.
So there you have it. Both sides are the same. Don’t even bother to vote.
