In an interview with Samafor co-founder Ben Smith, MSNBC reporter Mehdi Hasan said it was “deeply dangerous” for a news outlet to cover “both sides” of a story.
His comments go against the traditional journalistic principles of fairness and impartiality but are increasingly common in media circles.
“There are two words we need to remove from our media vocabulary right now and that is ‘both sides,’” Hasan said. “This fundamental crutch, this reliance on ‘both sides’ as a kind of lazy way of covering our political moment is deeply dangerous.”
“There are a bunch of major issues on which there are not both sides,” he continued. “There are not both sides on climate change. There are not both sides on white supremacy. There are not both sides to democracy. Ben, there are not both sides on the Holocaust.
“On the big issues of our time, on whether people should be able to vote, on whether they should be able to get to a ballot box, on whether one party should be able to overturn elections, no there are not both sides.”
