Can Howell Raines' criticism dent Fox News?

It used to be that only Bullwinkle was a dope on TV.
"Not that lesson, this one!" Remember?
A few lessons in journalism are in order for that festering sore of a news network: Fox News. Howell Raines, a former executive editor of the New York Times, stuck his neck out and wrote an extensive piece saying a few things that needed to be said about "Fixed News" (the moniker coined by another critic in the media).
The reason I write that he "stuck his neck out" is that any prominent critic of Fox News can get prepared to be eviscerated by the Fox on-air personalities. I've seen evidence of that already on Bill O'Reilly's show. They will do what any target of criticism will do when the intellectual arguments aren't in his/her favor: Question the motives, associations, background etc. of the critic.
Perhaps they'll try to find someone who claims you cheated on an eighth grade science exam. Around every corner you might be encountered by a Fox News "ambush interviewer," someone like Griff Jenkins. The ambush people have carefully crafted questions designed to leave their adversary stammering, speechless and just wanting to get away.
David Brauer of Minnpost wrote some criticism of Fox News not long ago and I emailed him - we have communicated periodically - warning him of the possible "ambush" danger. This has happened to the chancellor of Syracuse University, Nancy Cantor. It was perhaps the most embarrassing example of this disturbing Fox News phenomenon.
Robert Wexler, former Florida congressman, had this happen at the driveway of his home. Alan Brinkely, author and Columbia University professor, had it happen as he strolled along the sidewalk. I told Brauer that the ambush interview was probably "the most uncivilized thing that Fox News does." And I don't believe Howell Raines even wrote about it.
The Weekly Standard, a conservative mouthpiece cut from the same cloth, accosted moderate (RINO) Republican DeeDee Scozzafava in a menacing manner, a la the Fox tactic, and she had the police summoned. Fox News has incorporated the values of British tabloid journalism. This comes from their owner, Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp. which owns Fox News.
Howell Raines asked "Why don't honest journalists take on Roger Ailes and Fox News?" Ailes is the notorious chief of Fox News. Ailes has taken a network which seemed interesting and innovative in its early days and made it sinister. Fox was initially refreshing because prior to that time, the old criticism of the "liberal mainstream media" did have some legs. I'll be the first to assert that.
As a lifelong media person myself, I'm quick to smell out bias and sense people's motives. I never liked the left-leaning media and I abhor Fox News. If Fox simply tried to present itself as a solid, professional news network with a perspective somewhat right of center, fine. There is no "perfect" perspective. If they had kept their labeled commentators in a more confined space, fine. But they call themselves "fair and balanced" while relegating their most impartial news work to the most obscure part of the TV viewing day.
As the evening hours approach, we see the heavy artillery begin to deliver volleys, first with the controversial (even in Fox's internal circles) Glenn Beck. Think Bullwinkle is a dope? Holy mackerel. Of course, Beck isn't really a dope, as he understands the media, TV, politics and the public paranoia that can be stoked by his orchestrated rants. I watch him occasionally out of pure curiosity. How much of his ratings success is due to non-fans like me?
I could watch the sane Chris Matthews on MSNBC but that might be boring. Savvy TV operators like O'Reilly and Beck understand fully that when on the air, if you do nothing else, avoid being boring. Call Barack Obama a racist (as Beck did). Suddenly you're the focus of attention among your peers and a good segment of the public. Think that helps you "break through the clutter?"
The media universe of today demands that you "break through the clutter" almost as step #1. Beck may lie awake nights pondering that objective. His name has become a household word that way.
O'Reilly too has gained great notoriety. I was struck by Mike Barnicle's comment a while back that O'Reilly, whom he has known for over 20 years, "isn't the ogre" that so many believe him to be. I'm quite sure that Barnicle, a sage observer and fundamentally good person who appears on the "Morning Joe" TV panel headed by Joe Scarborough, is right. I have worked in the media myself and you become a product of your environment. You learn to put out the appropriate product. O'Reilly does what Roger Ailes wants him to do.
I would want to ask O'Reilly if he wants to be remembered as the "ogre" or something else. Does he really have to take those "30 pieces of silver" from Fox News? Hasn't he been doing this "gig" long enough? When I was a kid, sitcoms on TV were canceled all the time so why can't the likes of O'Reilly, Beck and Sean Hannity just "mosey on down the road?" Why can't we get those fresh new faces that otherwise seem so important in television? Will the threesome just cited along with "Anything But Taxes" Neil Cavuto, still be on the tube doing their thing 15 years from now?
Media wonk Steven Brill once observed in his now-defunct "Content" magazine that the nature of cable TV news attracts "oddball" program hosts. Who in their right mind would want to go in front of a camera for an hour every weekday, live, sifting through the day's news, asking questions in at least a semi-knowledgeable way and advocating in some manner? The pressure, glare and intensity of the media lights would be too much for most normal people.
The ego-driven souls are the only ones left, and do we want them guiding our discourse on political issues?
Raines wants the older established media to rise up vs. the Fox News credo. But the old media are shrinking. Newspapers are dying. Journalists who want to climb the ladder probably feel they'd do better kissing up to the likes of Roger Ailes.
Raines writes about "Ailes' willingness to dismantle anyone who crosses him." Which sheds light on another problem of Fox News: a fierce aversion to criticism and an oftentimes petty, nitpicking way of dismissing such criticism and the people who voice it.
O'Reilly explodes at any suggestion that he or Fox News might be fallible. Maybe this is because, as Raines suggests, Fox News defends a "rigid universe" of thoughts. Health care reform is something new and thus something that Fox News views with suspicion and skepticism - hallmarks of conservative thinking.
Make no mistake: conservatives have their place. Skepticism can be an important attribute. But hardcore skeptics are not good at leading, not good at setting the agenda when the time finally comes for something like health care reform. Instead we get Cavuto grilling some Democratic congressman about some paltry sum like $4000 allegedly being misappropriated in the stimulus package - laughable when one places that issue next to the zillion-dollar type figures dancing around in connection with all the Wall Street shenanigans that caused the "financial crisis."
Raines assailed Fox News for its approach that is "dishonest in its intellectual process." Maybe Bullwinkle would have more credibility than Ailes and Fox News.
If the Fox people dissected this opinion post you're reading, I know what they'd do: look for a minor factual flaw which might be here because I'm employing my memory and I don't sit around all day taking notes in a spiral notebook while watching Fox News.
And if I said I consulted "Media Matters" (the online Fox News gadfly), O'Reilly would throw a tantrum dismissing me.
Bill, maybe you should take a pill of some type. If you're truly not an "ogre," get off the air and rejoin normal civilization. Take off the circus clown makeup and walk down the street proudly again. I think you can do it.
As for Beck, I'm doubtful. Hannity? He's just like a talking doll where you pull the string. He utters Republican boilerplate nonstop.
I do sense some humanity below the surface with Mr. O'Reilly. Come on Bill, have one of those life-changing revelations. Don't be a "dope."
-Brian Williams - Morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com