Dan Rather reports on a story about Bush's military service supported by documents that proved to be phony. Gets deserved backlash, accused again of having a liberal bias and ultimately leaves CBS as a result of the whole mess.
That's fair. If you report news and it proves to be a lie, it should at least be called into question what the motives are. If you report "news" and regularly have guests and hosts that spit out already proven lies and smear/fear monger, there really are only a few options for the person/entity that's the target of those.
They could continue to say nothing - This has worked so well as evidenced by the rising ratings of Fox News. Saying nothing leaves people who view regularly to believe everything they're being told and to lash out against anyone who tries to correct whatever lies or smears that were being reported on. It also leaves leaves people who are in support of the administration to be frustrated when they don't call out the BS. If unchecked by criticism of the substance and quality of the reporting, the formula gets copied by other news agencies and we all suffer.
They could try imposing new regulations - Would anger independents and pretty much everyone else depending on the language of the regulations. It would also lend some weight to the ridiculous claims of fascism on this government.
They could do what they're doing now - At the worst, it turns off some independents and gets your opposition more angry with you. But since it's just comments made about the content of Fox News rather than a policy initiative, it changes the dialogue in the Media. It's a win for the Whitehouse and for news in general when people begin questioning the messenger.
What is the difference between calling Fox News an ideologically driven network and conservatives constantly labeling MSNBC/CNN/NY Times as the liberal media? At least with the former there's a litany of examples where even the most objective observers can see when they're being lied to, while the latter is generally more rooted in the tactics by reporters as opposed to the authenticity of what they're actually reporting on.
I would love for Fox News to channel its energy to holding Obama's feet to the fire on substantive issues. Just as we need to question the messenger, we need to have the messenger asking the right questions - and getting answers. Further, I really hate that cable news has pretty much been reduced to political opinion mixed in with some pop culture and a sprinkle of a a few outrageous stories and national disasters here and there. There's so much that can be covered in a 24 hour cycle that gets neglected, ignored, or covered up.