Not much to say in this diary. Many of you must know about the work being done by progressives to limit the damage that Fox News causes, by encouraging Democrats to avoid the network. This has led to a boycott of the debate hosted by Fox News that was to include many of the Democratic frontrunners.
Of course, Fox news has hit back, desparate to maintain their 'fair and balanced' veneer.
So imagine my surprise to read in the Washington Post an article an op-ed about the campaign that discusses the role that bloggers and liberals, and gets it exactly right.
Here is the opening to the article:
I have this mischievous suspicion that Roger Ailes, the creator and chairman of Fox News, secretly admires the bloggers and other activists working to keep Democratic presidential candidates from debating on his cable network.
To be sure, Ailes will never say this. On the contrary, he is furious that MoveOn.org and others have struck a chord in arguing that Democrats have no business creating any formal link with a network that so openly favors conservative and Republican causes.
No attacks on the bloggers, and a frank admission of the obvious bias of the Fox News network.
My favorite part, though, is how he 'covers both sides of the controversy' and still manages to tell the truth:
"Pressure groups are forcing candidates to conclude that the best strategy for journalists is divide and conquer, to only appear on those networks and venues that give them favorable coverage," Ailes fumed earlier this year as Fox's effort to sponsor a Democratic presidential debate in Nevada was falling apart. "Any candidate for high office of either party who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake." Using the incendiary word "blacklist" was a nice touch.
What Ailes knows is that the campaign to block Fox from sponsoring Democratic debates is the most effective liberal push-back against the network that stars Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity since its debut on Oct. 7, 1996.
Ailes has been brilliant at having it both ways, insisting that his network is "fair and balanced" even as its right-tilting programming built a devoted conservative following that helped it bury CNN and MSNBC in the ratings.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is journalism.
Title updated to credit EJ Dionne, Jr., the columnist who wrote the op-ed.