The Internet explains everything, cont.

So a common refrain from journalists whose abysmal coverage incenses us bloggers so is that "if we're being criticized from both sides, we must be doing something right."

via some unrelated toying with wikipedia, I find that this idea -- virtue lies between two extremes -- is referred to "the Golden Mean", and dates back to ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. The Roman poet Horace had a specific phrase for it in latin, aurea mediocritas.

The thing is, my lack of latin skillz is so profound that when I first read that I thought it might refer to golden mediocrity. Which seemed to be a perfect summation of the modern media, after all.