Included in the announcement of Google’s long-expected One Pass paid content system for publishers is news that two more U.S. newspaper chains are planning to put up online paywalls at some of their newspaper sites this year: Media General plans to use One Pass to charge users who access its 180,000-plus circulation Richmond Times Dispatch, while midwest newspaper chain Rust Communications will soon charge some users at three of its newspaper sites.

My father belonged to a construction workers' union. My mother was a member of a union for seamstresses. I'm a founding member of the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild that represents employees in the newsroom. I didn't have to join the union; I choose to do so. So I guess you could say I'm a union kind of guy. So are lots of other people, and for them union membership isn't about secret handshakes or monogrammed jackets. It's about a guarantee of fair wages, workplace safety, sick leave and health benefits.

For too long, mainstream journalism has pulled its punches. Admirably dedicated to fairness, balance, not picking winners and losers, it too often settled for "on the one hand, on the other hand" stories that left readers in the dark. Clearly it's important to be impartial. But that doesn't mean treating both sides of the argument equally when one is demonstrably false, or even deeply flawed. To treat everything equally is to create a false equivalency. And that really shortchanges the readers.