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The second great fallacy in the Lewis Powell-inspired call for the achievement of balance in the press and academia resides in its highly selective nature.

The argument is made by Conservatives that the special role of these institutions in molding public discourse, makes them subject to special ideological scrutiny, and, hence, demands for balance.

Leaving aside the telling fact that when serving as Supreme Court Justice, Powell voted against the continuation of the Fairness Doctrine, which had been established in 1949 precisely as a means to insuring ideological diversity in the US media environment, there is the larger question of whether, according to the Conservative credo, these areas of life are alone in molding the shape of public discourse.

Corporate boardrooms and the Pentagon, to name just two other institutions, have an enormous ability to affect the public’s perception of ideas. This is what the whole public relations and advertising industries, to which they both massively subscribe, are all about.