Liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Friday denounced the “centrist cop-out” of balance. Krugman specifically singled out the Associated Press for not exclusively blaming the ongoing debt ceiling impasse on the Republican Party. Complaining about too much fairness, he derided his journalistic colleagues, “But making nebulous calls for centrism, like writing news reports that always place equal blame on both parties, is a big cop-out — a cop-out that only encourages more bad behavior. The problem with American politics right now is Republican extremism , and if you’re not willing to say that, you’re helping make that problem worse .”