In the interest of fairness and balance, and to make sure all viewpoints are carefully aired, the Washington Post has added a republican blogger to its web site.  And if you think that means they’ll be adding a liberal democrat to the roster too, I’ve got a Florida election to sell you…

Media Matters has a few good questions:

You recently wrote of reader comments deleted from the Post blog: "If I had let them, they would have obliterated any semblance of civil, genuine discussion." Domenech’s inaugural post on his "Red America" blog for the Post referred to "the shrieking denizens of their [the Democrats’] increasingly extreme base" and "the unhinged elements of their base, motivated by partisan rage." Is that the sort of "civil, genuine discussion" you had in mind? Or do you have one set of rules for your staff and another for your readers, one set for liberals and another for conservatives?

As Greg Sargent writes…

Either way, the problem is this: Those critics can’t be placated. The right wouldn’t stop shrieking their "media is liberal" war cry if every single major liberal columnist in America were hauled off in tumbrels and beheaded on the Mall. Right-wing media criticism isn’t about achieving the "balance" they supposedly seek; it’s about bullying and intimidating mainstream reporters and pundits to fear being labeled as "liberals" if they don’t reproduce GOP spin, even when they know it to be false. It’s also about enabling right-wing voices that are far out of the mainstream to infiltrate the media.

The Post on the other hand, thinks that the likes of Domenech are balanced out by the likes of Richard Cohen.  Sorta like Bozo The Clown balances out Pol Pot…