Paul Krugman made a point about the media today that has long bugged me. A TV show he was supposed to be on (he doesn't mention which) was canceled when they couldn't find someone to argue the other side. As Krugman puts it, "In a way this goes beyond my original point ["if liberals said the Earth was round, while conservatives said it was flat, the news headlines would read 'Shape of the planet: both sides have a point.'"], which was the unwillingness of the news media to referee a controversy by actually reporting the facts. Now it seems that a fact isn't worth reporting unless someone is prepared to deny it."
It's popular to beat on Generation Y for being spoiled by a childhood of trophies for showing up, but I'd argue that the media is as much to blame for the problem as anyone. After all, no one makes more of a point of ensuring that both sides get an equal voice regardless of whether one side is completely insane or not. (For the record, I am not referring to democrat/republican conversation, I get that both sides should get equal voice. I'm talking about issues where there is no other side until the media digs one up and gives it airtime.)