Fair and balanced? Um ... no

[Riot]

I'm going to give you a hypothetical. I'm sure you won't answer it because you never answer questions that hurt your argument.

That's simply not true, but hey, truth, falsehood, there's no "real" line, is there?

I'll make the hypothetical about a Republican. Let's say a poll was done tomorrow and 10% of people say they think that Rudy Giuliani is probably an atheist. If an article was written about this, do you think that the journalist should write that 10% of people "incorrectly" and "wrongly" believe that Giuliani is an atheist?.

No, what the media should do is the usual: check the facts. Ask Giuliani if he is atheist. If he says no, then look to see if there is any evidence he is atheist (that he is lying).

If there is not, then you bet, "10% incorrectly-wrongly believe" is exactly how the story should be written. Giuliani isn't an atheist. He's a Catholic. People that think otherwise are incorrect, and wrong.

They should report the results of the poll and that should be it. They should say that Giuliani is a professed Catholic but 10% of the respondents think he's an atheist.

Why should the media give people that express a view contrary to proven reality equal creedance with the proven reality? That's silly. Opinion and fact are not the same. Opinion contrary to or ignoring presented fact is worth even less.

And that is one of the things that is harming our country right now - the delusion that anything expressed or written (especially on the internet), no matter how crazy, is taken as true without question. We used to have distance and time and responsibility to protect us from rampant rumour - now, nothing.

The truth of the matter is we don't what Rudy Giuliani truly believes. Politicians will often pretend to be religious even if they aren't

So what?

The WTC was brought down by Bush & Cheney.
Obama wasn't born in Hawaii.
Contrails in the sky are secretly poison put out by the government to rain down upon us.
Communists are present throughout our government, and the President is secretly a communist working for Russia.
Those are not valid "opinions" that deserve "equal time". They are the musings of the deranged who ignore reality.