Long ago I said that if liberals said the Earth was round, while conservatives said it was flat, the news headlines would read “Shape of the planet: both sides have a point.” But I encountered a new wrinkle today.
I was tentatively scheduled to be on a broadcast dealing with — well, I won’t embarrass them. But first they had to find someone to take the opposite view. And it turned out that they couldn’t — which led to canceling the whole segment.
This motive for staged, fake balance is what tends to give us people like Mike Pence who are allowed to spread obvious lies and distortions on MSNBC -- twice. Also, cable news networks will ask certain "strategists" to take a pre-designated position, and if the strategist is able to construct a pithy argument along those lines, they usually agree to play along.