Hothead But Not a Liar I

Interesting quick take from CNBC on Alec Baldwin's arrest in NYC for punching a person over a parking space. The article refers to "Hot-headed actor Alec Baldwin." (Italics added)That seems fair enough - meaning accurate enough, given some prior documented incidents of aggressive physical behavior.

But "hot-headed" is surely a negative description, and this story appears under the Politics heading as news, not opinion, along with a photo of Baldwin impersonating Trump on Saturday Night Live. As an important player in Democratic politics immediately prior to the mid-term elections, isn't Baldwin a political figure entitled to "both sides" treatment?

This treatment dictates that the reporter highlight antisocial physically aggressive behavior by a prominent Republican, preferably an actor to keep it as parallel as possible. If you can't find a good example of an actor, maybe go with Corey Lewandowski fighting with John Kelly at the White House in February. See - both sides do it. No matter what "it" is.

And if it's the New York Times, you might even pivot to a bland, but misleading generalization in the headline like "Tempers Flare on Both Sides as Mid-term Election Nears" -  rendering the story meaningless.

But Baldwin is not an officeholder, nor is he running for office. Even though the CNBC story falls under a Politics heading (shown below), he is being given the Entertainment treatment by CNBC.

Besides, it's Republicans whose long history of "whatabout the Democrats" complaints have the news media afraid of their harsh criticisms.