I. Jim Rutenberg of the Times is in love.
Jim Rutenberg has written a lengthy love letter to Megyn Kelly and Fox News in today's New York Times Magazine Cover Story. This is a piece that rivals Rich Lowry's memorable post that Sarah Palin "sent little starbursts through the screen" in her 2008 Biden VP debate.
But Jim (now the Chief Political Correspondent for the Magazine) does not lust only after Megyn; He ends his piece approvingly quoting Roger Ailes:
“They used to laugh at us in the mainstream media,” Ailes said, “but we’re becoming the place most people go to get the truth.”
That's not accompanied by any snark or sarcasm. It's not a newly discovered edition of
The Colbert Report. It's the f$#king New York Times summing up its article about Fox News and its supposed "maverick," Megyn Kelly.
"we’re becoming the place most people go to get the truth."
Did I mention that Jim Rutenberg is now the
Chief Political Correspondent of the New York Times Magazine?
Every day Fox lies, dissembles and spreads right wing propaganda. Every day, this is revealed here at Kos or on the Daily Show or on Media Matters or anyplace interested in the truth. Just yesterday, we read Shaun King's diary about Fox's complete fabrication of events to ludicrously blame Eric Holder for the Ferguson riots.
II. The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations for Megyn Kelly
Megyn Kelly is the focus of the Times Magazine piece because of her "Megyn Moments," when she supposedly departs from the Fox script. The idea that this represents some tilt toward truth by Fox is effectively demolished by Newshounds in this article. For example, the Times cites her "history has proven you wrong about Iraq" question to Dick Cheney, but omits that the interview as a whole was sycophantic toward Cheney, letting him lie without comment or challenge (including about Iraq) and asking him questions like “Do you think that President Obama is dangerous?”
The "Megyn Moments" are calculated "slips" designed to present a veneer of some respectability to the propaganda network. And you know what? Rutenberg fell for it hard.
It is literally stomach turning to read Rutenberg's paean to Kelly and Fox. His main sources are Ailes, O'Reilly and Kelly's husband, with a quote from "liberal-leaning columnist" Joe Klein. (Klein is the go-to "liberal" leaning hack sure to bash liberals -- kind of a human New Republic.) Rutenberg lets Kelly deal with critics such as Media Matters for him: (She ignores Media Matters, she says: “They exist to destroy Fox News.”)
No Megyn. Media Matters exists to reveal Fox's and others' serial lies and propaganda by simply quoting them.
Rutenberg thinks ratings are evidence of Fox's ascent to respectability, including Bret Baier's 6:00 Special Report. Bret Baier is a serial liar about WMD's in Iraq, "death panels," the ACA and almost anything. Baier reported that surfer-slacker Jason Greenslate was the "new face of food stamps." But his ratings are rivaling the networks, so in the eyes of the Times Magazine's Chief Political Correspondent, this makes him respectable.
It is shocking and disheartening to see a fawning piece about Fox and Kelly in the New York Times. The Times should be writing about the many ways in which Fox is a blatant propaganda organ for the right. Not puffing Ailes, the guy who has done as much as anyone to destroy political dialogue in the U.S. for the last 40 years.
As editor of the right wing National Review, Rich Lowry at least had an explanation, if not an excuse for his ecstatic "starbursts" moment. Jim Rutenberg and the Times have none.