Taking "Balance" Too Far

Hat tip to HonestReporting.com for their alert about C-SPAN's bizarre idea of fair and balanced programming. They were set to broadcast this evening Emory University's Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust scholar, giving a talk at Harvard University promoting her new book, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving on their BookTV program. Want to take a guess what the brain trust over at C-SPAN wanted to do to provide balance? Yep. I'm betting your guess is accurate.

...a recent speech of Irving's (recorded by C-SPAN) would need to be broadcast as well. C-SPAN producers explained their reasoning to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen:

'We want to balance [Lipstadt's lecture] by covering him [Irving],' said Amy Roach, a producer for C-SPAN's Book TV. Her boss, Connie Doebele, put it another way. 'You know how important fairness and balance is at C-SPAN... We work very, very hard at this. We ask ourselves, 'Is there an opposing view of this?'

In case you're not getting it, let me fill you in. David Irving is a Holocaust denier.

C-SPAN, that is, sought out an 'opposing view' to Lipstadt's confirmation of the Nazi Holocaust. Lipstadt refused to be cast side-by-side with Irving, on the grounds that Holocaust denial does not merit public debate.

Good for her! It will probably mean fewer book sales but I completely agree with her stance. And because of it, I think I'm going to go order her book.

The action here folks is to contact C-SPAN and tell them how you feel about their programming philosophy. Email comments to: booktv@c-span.org