The mainstream media's habit of giving false equivalency to the Left and the Right needs to end as the contrasts between the two are stark, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
NEWS REPORTS about the first and likely only U.S. election debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump regularly fell into lazy false equivalency, both-siding the candidates by calling the debate ‘chaotic’, ‘combative’ and ‘heated’. It was not the debate that was chaotic, combative and heated — it was Donald Trump.
This micro example of false equivalency is the same as the macro assessment of the polarised state of Western politics and media, including social media. Even the word “polarised” suggests that the people who are polar opposites – like Harris and Trump in the debate – are equivalent to each other, equally misbehaving, equally chaotic, combative and heated.
This false equivalency hides the truth of the matter, a truth you hardly ever hear anyone admit.
Left-wing politicians, media and social media users are not equivalent to those on the Right for two reasons:
- the Right uses hate and attacks its opponents, particularly marginalised minorities, whereas the Left does not; and
- the Right systematically lies and deceives, the Left does not.
Right-wing politicians, mainstream media and social media users spend a lot of time attacking groups they oppose, particularly marginalised people. Giving false equivalency to these attackers and the Left – who are the ones defending themselves against attacks – is like saying a burglar is equivalent to the person they burgled.
Racists are not equivalent to the people of colour and immigrants they attack. Misogynists are not equivalent to the women they abuse. TERFs are not equivalent to trans people. And so on.
When someone defends themselves, they are not “attacking back”, they are defending themselves. Yet, too often the Right-wing attacker and Left-wing victim standing up for themselves are falsely presented as equivalent.
It is also clear that Right-wing politicians, mainstream and social media engage in campaigns of manipulation, often using blatant disinformation, where the Left does not. This fact is born out in studies of disinformation and propaganda.
For example, fact-checkers found Republicans lie more than Democrats. In the book Network propaganda: Manipulation, disinformation, and radicalisation in American politics, Benkler, Faris and Roberts analysed Right-wing and Left-wing media and found they do not behave the same way when it comes to spreading falsities.
They wrote:
Despite extensive efforts, we were unable to find an example of disinformation or commercial clickbait started on the Left, or aimed from abroad at the Left, that took hold and became widely reported and believed in the broader network that stretches from the centre to the left for any meaningful stretch of time.
By contrast, as this book demonstrates amply, we found such instances repeatedly succeeding in the Right-wing media ecosystem, with pervasive exposure and lasting effects on the beliefs reported by listeners, readers and viewers within that network.
By placing “both sides” on the same plain, the Right gains false legitimacy by being presented as acting “just the same” as its opponents, implying there are rules to the game and it’s working within them — this is just business as usual.
The other outcome of this false equivalency is that it smears the Left with the Right’s behaviour. When one is behaving badly, they’re both called “chaotic”, when the reality is, the Right is misbehaving and the Left is calling it out.
The final outcome is that the Right is not held to account. Implied in the false equivalent idea of polarised politics and media is that neither side is in a moral position to call the other out.
So, who is going to call out the misdeeds of the Right? When the public is told the Left is just as bad as the Right, society is left with no legitimate arbitrator to bring the Right back into line.
Once upon a time, one might have assumed mainstream news outlets would hold the right accountable, but they are the biggest reason the false equivalency misrepresentation exists in the first place.
Twenty years ago, it was still considered scandalous for any politician or media person to lie or to spread hate through overt racism and misogyny. You only have to watch Trump and his media backers for ten seconds to see how far society has fallen since then.
Where the Left respect the institutions of truth – science, education, expertise and the justice system – the Right seems to care only for religion. Not the kind, compassionate brand of religion that wants to make the world a better place, but rather the Right embraces a grifting, judgmental, discriminatory, manipulative, cult-like, hate-filled, lie-ridden religion that embodies a never-ending assault on public decency, equality, social harmony and environmental safety.
The very least we could do is call it out as such.
Dr Victoria Fielding is an Independent Australia columnist. You can follow her on Threads or Bluesky.
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
Related Articles
- News media's lack of accountability destroying democracy
- CARTOONS: Biden vs Trump vs credibility
- Nuclear lobby manipulates ABC's 7.30
- ABC bows to Israeli lobbyists' demands
- Media hypocrisy protecting Right-wing position takers