White House Communications Director: Fox News Is A Wing Of The Republican Party
Which is a pretty gutsy thing to say when on any given night you can watch MSNBC’s entire evening line-up, from Ed Schultz through Rachel Maddow, playing full court press with whatever talking points the liberals are pushing that particular day.
The reality of it is that Fox News often operates as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. And it’s not ideological. I mean, obviously there are many commentators who are conservative, liberal, centrist, and everybody understands that. What I think is fair to say about Fox is — and certainly the way we view it — is that it really is more of a wing of the Republican Party. [...]
They’re widely viewed as, you know, a part of the Republican Party — take their talking points, put them on the air, take their opposition research, put them on the air, and that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news network they way CNN is.
If you’re going to talk about partisanship and bias in the media that’s fine, but let’s not pretend like Fox News is the only network choosing sides.
It’s clear that Fox does, in fact, have a pronounced bias. But so does MSNBC. And CNN. And The New York Times. And on and on. Plus, I’d note that Fox’s bias seems as rightward as it is only because the rest of the media goes so far to the left, and Fox is simply fulfilling the niche left over.
And doing it well, judging by the fact that Fox has pretty much triple the ratings of MSNBC and CNN on any given night.
