The MSM's Lame "Even-Handedness"

Not too bad an article here in Time by Fareed Zakaria.  It quite rightly notes that many important differences between Greece and the US, highlighting how silly it is to say that we're in the same boat when we're not.

But then Zakaria writes:

The great truth facing the U.S. is not that we lack solutions to our problems but that our political system seems unable to do anything. With a deficit as large as the one we face, it should be clear that we cannot sort things out through either spending cuts alone or tax increases alone. (Spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is set to rise from 10% of GDP now to 15% by 2030. That is simply unsustainable.) And yet the two parties seem stuck in adolescent fantasies, one ruling out tax increases, the other ruling out any serious cuts in entitlement spending. Sure, in a country of 312 million, people will disagree. But on the deficit, the disagreement is not a theological one. Debates over money are always amenable to compromise. You can split the difference!

This is the Mainstream Media bending over backwards to be "even-handed" and declare a pox on both their houses. But look at the bolded sentence- it's wrong. Only one party is ruling out anything. Democrats are not ruling out cuts to entitlement spending or walking out on talks whenever it comes up. Obama is offering Social Security cuts right now! Only one party is refusing to compromise- the Republicans.

Now the Tea Party types would say "that's great- we shouldn't compromise at all", and that's certainly the right of those politicians.  There are some things that one should not compromise on.  But let's please call it like it is- one side wants to make a deal, and the other side wants a capitulation.