The Fairness Doctrine Meets The Blogosphere

by hilzoy

Riffing off a comment in publius’ last thread, I suggest an ObWi party game: If blogs were forced to give equal time to opposing views, what truly horrible, yet somehow apt, pairings might result? In addition to the suggestion I left in the last thread, I propose the following:

Glenn Reynolds on Balkinization

Victor Davis Hanson on Pat Lang’s Sic Semper Tyrannis

Pam of Atlas Shrugs on Juan Cole’s Informed Comment

Ace of Spades on Feministing

JihadWatch on Larry Johnson’s No Quarter

Thomas of RedState on Slacktivist

Then there are a few that are a bit too obvious: NRO’s Planet Gore on Deltoid, Michelle Malkin on Orcinus, Charles Johnson of lgf on Democratic Underground, and so on.

Any further suggestions?

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Also, because I can, one of the Best Cartoons Ever, courtesy of one of our readers:

Story

21 thoughts on “The Fairness Doctrine Meets The Blogosphere”

  1. No, Ann Althouse on Feministing
    Of course, the notion that the right side should always be away on the left’s home fields is a bit suspicious. How about Steve Gilliard (rip, of course) given a spot on the Corner? Or Atrios getting to sub for the Perfesser? Greenwald on Volokh? Josh Marshall doing a gig at The Swamp? Tim Lambert doing a stint on John Lott’s blog? The possibilities are endless.

  2. I shall not rest until Amanda Marcotte subs for Ace of Spades, Scott Lemiuex for Ann Althouse, and Roy Edroso for everyone on the Corner.

  3. Giblets on the Volokh Conspiracy
    A Giblets v. Eugene Volokh smackdown on some topic would be hilarious, especially since Volokh is so tone deaf on some things.

  4. Charles Johnson (of lgf) on Juan Cole’s website (informed comment).
    Jane Galt on CrookedTimber.
    Andrew Sullivan on the Eschaton.
    The Powerline guys on Talking Points Memo.
    Emperor Misha on Alas A Blog. (He could do a grand tour of all the major feminist blogs, wouldn’t that be fun?)

  5. She’s not a blogger, because she’s been posting to Usenet longer than blogs have existed, but I would highly recommend Michelle Malkin of alt.atheism to complement her namesake.

  6. Jane Galt on CrookedTimber
    I think that pairing has already materialized in comment threads where she’s taken an active part; a guest post would just be the next step.
    The Hilzoy-on-Anti-Idiotarian-Rottweiler image is truly one of worlds colliding. The gentleness alone would baffle readers…

  7. I’m . . .
    cuckoo Foucault-cault Puffs!
    cuckoo Foucault-cault Puffs!
    cuckoo Foucault-cault Puffs!

  8. Sure, it would be great if Fox News watchers were forced to hear liberals points of view.
    But the real problem, as hilzoy alludes to, is false equivalence. The “fairness doctrine” plays against the reality-based community by automatically placing deranged rantings on the same level as substantive discourse.
    Ask anybody familiar with the creation-evolution battle about the “Gish Gallop”. Given equal speaking time, it’s ridiculously easy for a dishonest, crazy, whatever person to spew out gobs of complete nonsense faster than a reality-based person can refute the claims, no matter how contrary to simple fact the claims are. When the moderator bangs his gavel, some of the false claims are going to be left unaddressed, and as a result lots of the people listening will assume that those claims are then correct, or at least not wrong, when the simple fact is that the person refuting them just didn’t have enough time to do so.
    Artificial “fairness” is anathema to substantive discussion.

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