George Orwell said that the respectability being given to the proposition that two plus two equals five “frightens me much more than bombs”.

But there’s one place where our sanity is challenged like this — every day. Our media. The essence of “he said – she said” journalism is the wide-eyed reporting of opposing sides of an argument as if their very being in opposition confers on each some inherent claim for equal respect.

As Paul Krugman puts it, if a presidential candidate said the Earth was flat, the headline would be “Shape of the planet: both sides have a point.” After all, the Earth isn’t perfectly spherical.

Like reality TV, this journalism generates cheap content. The latest scrap is reported by a journalist with minimal knowledge of the area and the reader ends up none the wiser.

Here’s my latest example.

In The Age recently, Josh Gordon reported on a scrap about the Victorian Government’s debt.

With consistent operating surpluses forecast to continue, Victorian Government borrowing will rise to less than 3% of state product to fund infrastructure investment. If you think that’s wrong or scary you’re ignorant of the simplest household economics.

But Gordon’s story was that John Brumby was on the ‘defensive’ about state debt. Why? Because his opponent attacked him. But that’s not news, is it?

But maybe something is stirring. The New York Times recently reported some statistical analysis showing that white umpires fouled black players disproportionately and (to a lesser degree) vice versa. NBA spinmeisters had commissioned their own study which said the opposite (surprise, surprise!).

He said — she said.

But the Times did what journalists should always attempt — even if they’ve only got time for a few phone calls. They sought and reported on independent advice confirming the original study’s superiority. Times readers had the information to form an informed opinion rather than just cynically shrug their shoulders.

A whole lot more of that and we might, slowly, dig our way out of the morass all around us.