You might recall the scoffing of right-wingers, and a fair number of "impartial" members of the pundit class, when Democrats complained in past news cycles about the incessant political bias employed by the Fox News Network.
Does the charge have any more credibility now that a Republican is the one making it?
(Trey) Grayson says he's not just facing the Paul family in his race to replace retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), but an even more powerful force in conservative politics: Fox News.
By frequently putting Rand Paul, the son of Ron Paul and Grayson's opponent, on its air, Grayson says the network has all but endorsed Paul and given him an easy way to tout his candidacy without actually meeting Kentucky voters in person.
"I've been on Fox News once, on a live feed on one of the shows, and I was told I was to expect a certain line of questioning, and I was given a different line of questioning," Grayson said. Referring to Rand Paul, Grayson said, "He's on all of the time."
Grayson takes the Fox News bias charge and actually expands on it.
In the past, most of the allegations have been about things like topic choices, balance in terms of guests, and even the stray "mistake" by their chyron operator.
Grayson goes even deeper here. He comes perilously close to alleging sabotage by saying that they prepared him for one line of questioning, and then ambushing him with another line of questioning.
He also makes it very clear that he thinks Paul's appearances on the network are tantamount to campaign appearances:
"His dad had these phenomenal contacts, so ... he's on Fox News every couple of weeks with softballs," said Grayson. Imitating an anchor's voice, Grayson said the questions are softballs such as, "Rand, tell us about health care, you're a doctor. Rand, tell us about the tea party."
Grayson's protest, like those in the past, will probably be largely dismissed. After all, he is on his way to what will surely be a substantial defeat tomorrow in the Republican primary in Kentucky. It won't be hard to discount Grayson's allegations of favoritism as a mere case of "sour grapes" (and, indeed, those exact two words appear in the WaPo article about Grayson's complaint).
That said, it does raise an interesting question. Is Fox News now going from merely being a mouthpiece for GOP talking points to being a player in what is clearly a developing civil war to determine the future ideological course of the party?
Trey Grayson, quite clearly, seems to think so.
