CNN's "Wingnut of the Week" Awards

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

New feature presented by The Daily Beast. They present a wingnut from both right and left. Michelle Bachmann and Cynthia McKinney this week. I do have a problem with this idea of false equivalence, though. There is no way to compare the volume of wingnuttery, seems to me, on the right and left. The November elections were, in part, a nationwide repudiation of a lot of the right wing excesses and craziness (as Ed would say, the psychotalk).

CNN and sometimes MSNBC are still hopelessly chained to this "false equivalency model" which assumes that two opposing sides are always comparable, which they are not. Sometimes one side is dead-on and the other...well...dead on arrival. In this case, to be fair you'd need about ten right-wing awards for every one left-wing one, imho.

[annabanana]

1. You are right.. The false equivalency format helped to get us into

the war. "Those on the other side assert that the world is flat.. the science is out on this critical controversy.... discuss".

Anyhoo. .Everyone knows that the opposite of wingnut is moonbat.

[quaker bill]

2. Now, now

we have our rather colorful figures too. They difference on our side is that they are not in charge.

[unpossibles]

3. bingo. But there is also a difference in quality

To say that Al Franken or Olberman or Randi are the same as Rush and Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter is disingenuous at best. Yes, they serve similar roles, but when is the last time that the left's pundits and wingnuts called for hurting/killing the other side? Yes, there are some real whackos on both sides without doubt, but ours tend to at least be a little more grounded in reality and not so violent, a point that is seldom made.

[quaker bill]

4. Al, Keith, and perhaps Randi

are not people I would choose to create a comparison. Not even Mike Moore, who can be a bit of a bombast on occasion, can remotely compete with Brush Lintballs.

You have to get out there a good bit farther, but trust me we have them, they are just rarely lent a microphone and rarely published in anything with significant circulation.