Mike Rogers , the former Michigan congressmember and Republican candidate for Senate, is a liar. Aren’t all politicians liars? Rogers stands out not just for the audacity of his false statements, but the racism underpinning them.

In an exchange on Oct. 18 with CNN’s Dana Bash, Rogers said his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, would not disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic social movement that briefly took power in Egypt after the Arab Spring. El-Sayed is Egyptian American and the right has falsely tried to tie him to the group, whose Egyptian branch was recently designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department because of its alleged “material support” for Hamas.

In fact, during a town hall event on Oct. 17 in Caro, in the thumb of the Michigan mitten, El-Sayed responded affirmatively to a man asking if he would denounce the Muslim Brotherhood, an answer that took over the news cycle . Bash responded to Rogers by citing the incident, pointing out that El-Sayed “did say— he said, ‘Sure, yes,’” that he condemned the Brotherhood. Rogers responded, “No, that’s not true.”

But the widely viewed video of the exchange clearly shows Sayed saying “Sure, yeah, absolutely.” Rogers kept at it, again trying to tie El-Sayed to the Brotherhood on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He has denied and denounced the Muslim Brotherhood,” responded the show’s host, Kristen Welker, to which the Republican flailed, “Listen, I get you guys want to defend this guy.”

He saw bin Laden’s body

For the Metro Times, Detroit’s main free alternative newspaper , these incidents led into Rogers’ tendency to advance myths about his own life as well — namely, his exaggeration of his record as an Army officer and FBI agent. The paper said:

Rogers has also exaggerated his own role in the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. He claimed he helped plan the raid, said he was “there at the bin Laden raid,” and told donors he saw bin Laden’s body with his own eyes.

A previous Metro Times investigation found that Rogers was at home in Washington during the operation. He learned the outcome in a phone call from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. What he later saw was a photograph of bin Laden’s body.

When the Metro Times asked about those claims for its Oct. 8 report, Rogers’ campaign declined to answer specific questions. It instead defended his record and repeated an unfounded allegation that El-Sayed received money from terrorist organizations.

So on Oct. 21, the Metro Times made an announcement : “For this reason, we are no longer reaching out to Rogers’ campaign for comment to avoid spreading falsehoods and bigoted attacks on El-Sayed’s Muslim faith.”

Views differ on shape of planet

Coming from an alternative paper in a liberal-leaning urban area, this decision might not have the biggest impact on the race. But it is an important lesson for American journalism in an age of media distortion, misinformation and the anti-Islamic demagoguery of the contemporary Republican Party .

They should refuse to give a free microphone to those spewing falsehoods.

The conventional wisdom holds that “fair” and “balanced” journalism gives equal time to both major party candidates in an election, allowing them the opportunity to say their piece without distortion and let the voters decide. But this approach of a news outlet being a neutral, restrained medium for partisan agendas comes at a cost when politicians exploit that restraint to promote outright falsehoods.

An old joke by former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman demonstrates the problem. If a candidate says that the Earth is flat, The New York Times will run a headline saying, “Shape of the Planet: Both Sides Have a Point,” he wrote in 2011.

The point is, neutrality isn’t adequate in such a situation. Establishment corporate media have to have the courage to say that the Earth is round, the sky is blue and the Earth revolves around the sun. They also have to say that anyone, especially someone who is holding or seeking political power, who says the contrary is just plain wrong.

Bash and Welker challenged Rogers. That’s good. And The New York Times has come a long way from the days when its White House correspondent Elisabeth Bumiller articulated the paper’s standard as, “You can’t just say the president is lying.” A Times fact-check this week on Donald Trump ’s electoral disinformation began: “In his second term, President Trump has seldom let a day go by without repeating lies about election results or casting doubt on the country’s voting system.”

But the outlet Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting has long argued that the media must do more to be an aggressive referee in a time when false information clouds elections: They should refuse to give a free microphone to those spewing falsehoods. They have to say, “If you want to have a back and forth with your opponent on our airwaves and pages, you have to stick to the truth.” The Metro Times is doing that, and editors and producers around the country would do well to take notice.

Actively threatening rights

The Metro Times knows that even right-wing Republicans need oxygen in media outside the far-right channels. This paper is setting a standard that says: If you want a platform, you have to agree to some semblance of common decency.

There’s still some days before voting closes for this election, but polling by the Lansing State Journal and Detroit TV station WDIV shows El-Sayed ahead of Rogers. In its endorsement of El-Sayed, the Detroit Free Press editorial board said , “Rogers is a vocal supporter of an administration that is actively threatening the rights of Michiganders,” including those of racial, gender and sexual minorities. It said, “Rogers’ own politics are discouraging, and we find no indication that he would check Trump’s romp through the rule of law.”

The Michigan race has the chance to lead a reckoning for the media on how to deal not just with political lying, but a massive campaign of hate toward a marginalized population, the kind of campaign that led Jews to the gas chambers and Armenians into the death marches.

It is a rare bit of optimism that a scrappy alt-weekly is setting a new model for how the media can handle the current moment. The question now is: Will corporate media be watching?

The post Michigan’s Metro Times Is No Longer Asking Rogers Campaign for Comment appeared first on Truthdig .