The best analysis yet of Fox News

Fox News is so frustrating. They consistently repeat the Bush Administration talking points. It's almost like they get an email or fax directly from Karl Rove. Normally, the only people whining about it are in the blogosphere. Now that the Nevada Dems have dropped the Fox-sponsored Dem Presidential Debate, the criticism is beginning to pile up. Count the LA Times in this group:

Fox cloaks itself in the mantle of objectivity with the nudge-nudge insistence that it—and it alone—provides "fair and balanced" coverage of the news. Then it advances its financial and ideological interests by promoting lurid accusations from conservatives against Democrats, accusations that are routinely debunked later by the mainstream media. Many Fox reporters are fair. But overall the network—through its language, its news decisions and its hosts—generally functions more like a cog in the Republican message machine than as a conventional news organization that attempts to abide, however imperfectly, by the traditional standards of (yes) fairness and balance.

Many Democratic professionals believe that Fox will continue to provide an uncritical platform for almost any charge the right can dredge (Drudge?) up against the 2008 Democratic contenders.

Mark Mellman, the pollster for Kerry in 2004, passionately supported the decision to cancel the debate. "Everything Fox does is directed toward aiding and abetting the Republican Party, and it uses its newsgathering organization more or less as a cover for that," he said.

A senior advisor to one of the 2008 Democratic contenders was equally emphatic. "I think the more they can be de-legitimized the better," the advisor said. "They are in business to promote the Republican Party and to hurt the Democratic Party, and they have every right to do that, but to the extent that their pretense of objectivity can be challenged, it should be."

As Democrats rethink their relationship with Fox, they may, in fact, be taking a lesson from the way conservatives deal with mainstream media organizations they consider biased against them, from big newspapers (like this one) to NPR and CNN (where I appear as a political analyst.)

The situation isn't exactly parallel. For all the howling on the right, it's difficult to argue that mainstream news organizations operate with anything approaching Fox' partisan and ideological agenda. (E-mails: commence now.) But there's no question many conservatives feel as wronged by elements of the mainstream media as Democrats do by Fox.

Conservative leaders and groups harvest those emotions to raise money and energize their supporters. And yet, when conservatives perceive it in their interest, they do not hesitate to deliver their message through those traditional channels. They are entirely comfortable throwing rocks at the big media institutions and then stepping through the broken glass to dispense a sound bite—or, for that matter, to dish dirt over cocktails.

That's the equilibrium Democrats are likely to reach with Fox: cooperation mixed with confrontation, guided always by self-interest. As a result, one of the premier conservative media institutions now faces the likelihood of a sustained siege from Democrats using the same fluid tactics many conservatives have long applied against the mainstream press. Fox executives might not consider such an outcome fair, but even they might have to concede that it is balanced.
(DailyKos)