Sneaky people are exploiting journalism’s “both sides” rule

San Francisco Chronicle
Jon Carroll writes: “People savvy in manipulating the media have figured out the ‘both sides’ rule, and sometimes they create another ‘side’ where one barely existed, so the two sides can be seen to be in conflict. Obviously, giving equal weight to a fringe idea just lends unwarranted legitimacy to that fringe idea — a fringe idea like ‘intelligent design.'”