What happens when the left-leaning media is confronted with a left-wing attack on a media outlet?
The full-scale attack on Fox News by faux-populist Democrat Presidential Candidate John Edwards and the Nevada Democratic Party is going to be presenting some serious issues for the mainstream media, even if they don’t understand that yet.
John Edward and the Nevada Democratic Party have dumped Fox News as a sponsor for intra-party debates. Fox News, they argue, is an element of the Vast Right Wing conspiracy tm, and as such should be denounced as a propagandist and not a legitimate journalistic enterprise.
Now it's not shocking that the far left would be shopping this spin, but mainstream liberals are joining the chorus—and there has been a remarkable silence among the "mainstream media" defending Fox as a legitimate journalistic enterprise. In fact, many of them probably believe that the accusations are largely correct.
The failure to defend Fox News by other news outlets is part of a dangerous and disturbing trend.
Imagine, for instance, a situation where President Bush ejected hostile reporters from the White House Press Room. The firestorm would be immense, accusing Bush of trying to turn the news media into his mouthpiece. Helen Thomas comes to mind; nobody could possibly question her open hostility to the Bush Administration, yet her ejection from the Press Corps would be greeted with howls of indignation.
Not so the attacks on Fox News.
In today's world, many in the news media don't see their role as writing the first draft of history. They aren’t witnesses, but participants themselves in the ideological battles of their day. And until Fox News came along, pretty much everyone sang off the same song sheet, telling a coherently liberal picture of the news of the day.
Fox News’ failure to conform to liberal unanimity is a problem for them, and they have wanted to strike back for years.
But there is a huge problem with that desire. The latest polls show that 83% of Americans think the media is biased; admittedly that includes a few liberals who think that it isn't liberal enough. Still, 63% of Americans, including a good chunk of liberals, think that the media is biased leftward.
The success of the Nevada Democrats in banning Fox from its debates could turn out to be a real problem for the liberal media. The success of the attack is encouraging liberals in the media to pile on, and directly attack Fox as well.