One of Ours

...There was a time, not too long ago, when Fox News was a joke -- albeit a bad and sick one -- to liberals and TV journalists raised on Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. But even those who rue the success of Rupert Murdoch's flag-waving cable channel have to admit: The old boy has done it. CNN founder Ted Turner once famously mocked Murdoch, saying he'd squish his cable news rival like a bug. We all know now who has squished whom.

Just check the Nielsens: When the president gave his prime-time press conference last week, 5.2 million viewers watched on Fox News, compared to CNN's 1.7 million and MSNBC's 867,000 viewers. For the year, Fox ranks ninth among all cable networks in primetime, averaging 1.4 million viewers. CNN and MSNBC don't even make the Top 20. In 20th place: The Home and Garden Network...

...As Ailes told the New York Times Sunday Magazine in 2001: "In most news, if you hear a conservative point of view, that's called bias. We believe if you eliminate such a viewpoint, that's bias. If we look conservative, it's because the other guys are so far to the left."...

...whether liberal bias rules TV news is almost beyond the point here. Ailes understood that perception is all that counts. "Somewhere between 65 and 75 percent of the American people believe the media tipped to the left," Ailes said, according to his own research. "Now whether it does or it doesn't, if that's what they believe, that leaves a lot of room as long as you don't tip to the right." Fox, of course, does tilt to the right, as any even casual observer would know. But this ruse of blazing an objective swath through a blindly biased news media is the foundation of Fox's philosophy...

... to its credit, Fox often combines its attitude with good old-fashioned breaking news work -- the kind that made CNN its name during Gulf War I...

...The deeply flawed and controversial 1998 Tailwind report about the U.S. government allegedly authorizing a chemical attack on American defectors in Laos during the Vietnam War -- which CNN retracted -- was a tremendous embarrassment. The incident so disturbed Turner that he said at the time: "If committing suicide would help, I've even given that some consideration." Tailwind also fed conservative anger that the Communist News Network had taken another hit out on the U.S. government. Ted Turner's CNN became one more target for conservative conspiracy theorists looking for a liberal cabal in their remote controls...

...MSNBC sometimes has seemed a continuous loop of soft, pseudo-documentaries like the nostalgic "Time & Again" and Matt Lauer's "Headliners & Legends." As Tom Brokaw's heir-apparent Brian Williams says of the recycled fluff, "If you played the guitar in one 'Partridge Family' episode, there's a half-hour show about you in the MSNBC archives."...

...Those who flocked to Fox after 9/11 were looking for more than just the facts, Collins writes. "If terrorism had made Americans feel wounded, frightened, and confused, Fox helped wash those feelings away, becoming a beacon of moral certainty and defiance ...

...many Americans are looking less for real political debate than validation for their strongly held beliefs. And this isn't just true for conservatives. Liberal publications -- including Salon -- serve as havens for those feeling alienated and angered by the president's policies...

... this quote by Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, responding to critics who said Fox shouldn't say things like "our troops" when referring to U.S. soldiers. "Fuck them. Once we're in this war, it's us against them. And we're going to win."...Smith may as well have been articulating the Fox News creed...