Conversations with the Media

I met a woman who works for CNN yesterday and briefly talked with her about politics and CNN's mission to play it down the middle between the polarized parties.  I told her that I respect that goal, but I think it's hard because Republicans have learned so well how to manipulate the media's emphasis on "even-handedness".  She agreed with me, but took it in another direction, noting that Republicans are much better than Democrats at staying on message and providing people to go on camera when requested.

When I tried to move the conversation onto the Romney "post-truth" campaign (she had never heard the term), I didn't get agreement- she kept insisting that "both sides do it", and proudly pointed out that CNN is careful to take on both sides.  Our conversation was brief, and I did a poor job laying out my side so I thought I'd make one point here that I wish I had said yesterday:

I keep trying to point out that, although liberals certainly obfuscate and mislead at times (the SuperPac ad blaming Romney for killing a man's wife by taking away his health insurance was certainly unfair), conservatives are running a campaign based on baldfaced dishonesty and lies (like the Romney campaign repeating that the Obama administration is ending the work requirement for welfare).  I don't think those two examples above are equivalent- the Democratic one is unfair, while the Republican one is just a flat-out lie.  And the Democratic one is put out by a SuperPac, while the Republican one is repeated regularly by the Romney campaign.

But CNN would call out "both sides" on campaign dishonesty.  So I wish I had asked the following question yesterday:
How far would one of the parties have to go in order for you to concede that it is qualitatively more dishonest than the other?  Can you imagine a scenario in which you would not evenly call out both sides, but would rather say "that party is being really dishonest, way more than the other one"?
My problem with CNN and other centrist media is that I think the answer is that there is no scenario in which they'd call out just one side- "playing it down the middle" means finding fault with both sides, by defnition.

And this is the tough dilemna for media outlets like CNN.  If they call out the Republican campaign for its mendaciousness, they'll no longer be seen as neutral, as if the Truth is now a partisan argument.  It's diabolical.