Theory of Mutual Stupidity, Part II

Yahoo News f***ed itself after Katrina when it ran those famous pictures of survivors wading chest deep in water clutching supplies retrieved from abandoned stores. Black people were captioned as 'looters', while white people had just 'found' stuff.

Of course, Yahoo played the 'nothing to do with us' card, blamed the AP and claimed no editorial control over syndicated news items. But for a megacorporation like Yahoo to claim it lacked the resources to vet content disseminated to the entire planet under its own name came over as a tad unconvincing.

Now Yahoo seems to be playing the old 'Both Sides Are As Bad As Each other/Theory of Mutual Stupidity' game that the media can't seem to resist these days. It goes like this: As the wingnut right gets ever more extreme, the media increases its efforts to equate their insane transgressions with examples of Democrat 'bad behavior' that aren't even in the same league. It's as if they think doing this will make their analysis look balanced and impartial. Trouble is, it doesn't. All it does is excuse and encourage the obnoxious behavior of the wingnuts in the minds of casual news consumers and speed the descent of political discourse into a mob mindset where anything goes.

Example: Joe Wilson's multi-pronged blitzkrieg on House decorum and standards is only as bad as Democrat Alan Grayson hoisting a few signs on his easel while he talked about health care? According to Yahoo it is.

Really? Did Grayson publicly insult the president of the United States? Did Grayson flout congressional rules and protocols like it was his first day on the job and he'd ducked the Tourette's screening? Did Grayson lie while accusing others of the same sin?

Joe Wilson busted out one of the most flagrant bouts of bad behavior by a congressman in living memory. Alan Grayson had some posters. To compare them is as spectacularly disingenuous as comparing, oh I don't know, Barack Obama with Adolf Hitler.