From Eric Boehlert:
You know the knee-jerk claim from conservatives when Fox News comes under attack: Partisan, Dem-cheering MSNBC is just like Fox News, except from the left, so leave Rupert's team alooooone.
Except that, of course, it's not.
Meaning, MSNBC for most of the broadcast day actually produces a straight news product, which Fox News does not. And MSNBC for the most of the day welcomes conservatives on the air to discuss the day's issues (paging Pat Buchanan!), which is a courtesy Fox News simply does not extend to liberals.
But more importantly, MSNBC tees off on Democrats, even during the channel's supposedly liberal, opinionated shows, in the way Fox News absolutely refused to do when Republicans under Bush ran Washington, D.C. (And still refuses to do today.)
In the last four weeks, MSNBC has probably aired more substantive criticism of the current administration than Fox News aired of the Bush administration during that president's entire second term.
Period.
That's why MSNBC is not the liberal counter to Fox News. Because MSNBC does not operate as an appendage to the DNC and MSNBC does not consider itself to be a purely partisan political entity, the way Fox News now so clearly is.
Being willing to hold our own accountable is what separates us from the lower animals.
