Equal Time For Asswipes

I was reading the “Letters” column on the site of one of my favorite authors when I came across this quote:

“Your site would be less boring if you allowed at a least a few dissenting voices to be heard but that is not your style. You are just another Rush Limbaugh. It is said that intelligence begins with the ability to hold two opposing points of view in your head at the same time”

Personally, I thought that it was insanity, not intelligence, that starts with that ability.

This is not the first time I’ve seen this red herring dragged across the trail in order to distract people from a legitimate argument. The stench of it is so obvious that I think it quite rightly gets ignored by anyone with a modicum of intelligence – but it seems to keep tripping up the youth to whom a Leftist point of view is almost a birthright. Since only an exposure to the Real World will eventually temper their views, I feel the need to address this.

When was the last time you ever thought that Dowd, Ivins or Kaul or anyone else from the “normal” point of view would be more believable if they were to give some of their column inches to an opposing viewpoint? Come to that, when have you ever thought that the Conservative point of view should be aired – EVER?

I compare this to the current eruption over the broadcast of a movie made up of John Kerry’s testimony and the reactions of a small section of the population to those words. To use even an eviscerated version of this testimony – while offering the Democratic candidate at least equal time to rebut his words – is being promoted by the MSM as “An Anti-Kerry” political ad.

But the Sundance Channel, which has a much wider audience than the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, has already given several hours to broadcasting “Anti-Bush” programs – including, but not limited to, the current Bruce Springsteen tour. It has also been rumored that the Sundance Channel is planning to air 24 hours solid of anti-Bush propaganda on November 1st, but this (to the best of my knowledge) has not been confirmed. Is this being viewed as “valid political statements” and “news” instead of as unpaid ads for Kerry?

At least senior members of the Kerry campaign have confirmed that the Sinclair Group has offered time to the candidate but they have refused to acknowledge it. At least the “Talking Heads” on television have presented these people as “senior members” – personally I wouldn’t know any of them if I tripped over them.

What all this blathering is getting to is that anyone who uses the public mediums to put forth their opinion feel (as I do) that, if someone wants to express a dissenting view can damn well get their own column – or show – or blog.

And, if it comes right down to it, even I allow dissenting views – that’s part of what the “comments” is for. Unless you decide to get nasty, at which point I will very happily shit all over you.