[Nick Danger]

This is what really disturbs 'mainstream' journalists about Fox News. Fox will tell the public things that a good Democrat would not want them to know.

This looks like disloyalty to the average reporter at the Washington Post. It is "unprofessional conduct." It is "sensationalism." It is all kinds of bad things, because managing the news so as to produce Democratic Party victories (for the public's own good, mind you) means that no one can break ranks.

For a long time this was standard practice. Some local paper might print the embarrassing words of a Patty Murray, but that's where it would stop. No one needed to tell the duty editor at AP that this story was not to go out over the wire; spiking it was instinctive. Democrats are good, Republicans are bad, and it is the duty of every journalist to point that out at every opportunity. Since it is the "truth," doing so is being "objective."

Now comes Fox News, going completely off the reservation by telling people things that a Democrat wouldn't want publicized. How can they do this? They must be biased. They must be right-wing fanatics.

The worst part about the ratings success of Fox News is that the "liberal curtain" that manages what the public knows about can no longer maintain control. Millions of people are now regularly exposed to news stories that good Democrats would have spiked. This is new. It is frightening. How can good journalists protect the public from the evil Republicans when some of their own colleagues break ranks and let stories like this get out?

Just think of the havoc this is going to cause as the 2004 election approaches. The Democratic candidate will make the same number of gaffes candidates always make, but now millions of people will hear about every one. It won't just be the Republican's gaffes that get on the news, all of them will. Where's the advantage to the Democrat in that?

Oh sure, Dan, Peter, Tom, and CNN will all run live video of the Democratic candidate in action, with the very best sound bites selected each day. And they'll summarize what the Republican said while an unattractive still photo of him is up in the corner of the screen. But there will be millions of people who see -- certainly on Fox and maybe now even on MSNBC -- crowds cheering not just the Democratic candidate, but the Republican as well! It will look as though there are people out there who actually support the Republican! What kind of journalism is that?

That's not fair and balanced. That's not even objective. It's giving the evil Republicans a chance to get their poisonous views in front of the public! It's right-wing propaganda!

[goldstategop]

Its the way good journalists are supposed to be. And I feel it will make a difference difference in the outcome of the 2004 election. In 1992 there was no Fox News Channel, conservative talk radio was still in its infancy, there was no Free Republic. How different the landscape looks now. Its still far from being a level playing field but things are moving in the right direction and that's what frightens the Left. They can no longer count on the entire media being kept completely slanted in their direction now that people have alternatives available to them to whom they can and do turn to.