"Maddow and Olbermann bring intellectual seriousness to their work." That is almost the most important point. They deal in, and report on, objective reality. The correct errors when they are made. I ALWAYS learn something real and new when I watch Maddow.

For the MSM to constantly focus on "well they do it too" is simply too absurd, but then they consider placing a flat earther next to an actual expert as balance.

Why is this so difficult for the mainstream to understand?

Because the MSM is lazy and doesn't do real journalism, just glorified water cooler talk - opinion without real analysis. Or, to put it more directly, they confuse opinion with analysis. Also, media figures live in the media bubble, and talk mostly to each other and to pols/corporate figures within the Beltway and a few square blocks of NYC. Or Atlanta.

CNN is mediocre now, but it once did real news (20 years ago?)

And a final question: why is David Brooks featured in the NYT, PBS, and NPR? How many outlets does one columnist need? Can't the media find some other voices?

Keep up the good fight Steve because this "laziness" as you call it is how a nation becomes radicalized. This is how we lose our ability to make important judgments of right and wrong. This is how we lose standards and ability to discriminate truth from fiction. MSNBC exists almost entirely as the "liberal" network that tries to deconstruct the lies and manipulations of FOX. It plays defense to FOX's and the conservative movements offense. Look at Rachel Maddow. Her biggest contribution was to show the corporate money behind the tea-baggers and town hall forum disruptions -- to show us that this was part of a corporate funded and Republican party organized campaign (for the most part) and not some spontaneous eruption of average Americans rebelling at the Obama Tyranny.

Look at Keith Olbermann. For the most part he simply corrects the record from the distortions of Fixed News.

Those who call MSNBC the bookend to FOX might as well just had FOX a blank slate to do anything they want. How many times have you heard "Democrats do it too" as a way of excusing even the worst Republican scandals? This is how FOX plays defense for the conservative movement -- when ever conservatives screw up FOX immediately runs out to find anything even remotely similar that liberals did so they can trumpet that and then blame the mainstream media for its "double standard" in not reporting both equally.

Not to be too hysterical about this, but this is the mechanism by which we lose control of our democracy because it allows us to wipe virtually everything under the rug and give a lie and distort to the very worst extremists in our midst.

Celebrity Jeopardy provided a good metaphor to explain CNN when both Wolf Blitzer and Soledad Obrien lost miserably to two comedians, a basketball player, and a soap opera star, despite most questions being about history and current events.

Seriously, would anyone ask Campbell, Cooper, King (Larry or John) or Cafferty to take their SAT's for them?

Uh, Steve..I think MSM figures DO understand the difference. They're just scared of Fox. Let's keep in mind just how Fox threatened GE when Olbermann went after Billo.

That may not be uppermost in the minds of most MSM figures who equate Fox with MSNBC, but it's part of the picture.

Were I a bigtime TV journalist, I'd be furious at Fox for completely trivializing and subverting what should be a serious profession...not that anyone in the MSM/DC village is worth taking seriously these days, with the rare exception.

Fox has largely achieved what the GOP has been trying to do for nearly 40 years now: undermine the credibility of ALL MSM news outlets.

I think Bob Somerby makes a more important point, that it is perfectly OK to criticize so called opinion broadcasting on the same grounds as news broadcasting, for it's accuracy, focus, and inclusion of salient facts. If you're going to promote your own conclusions and opinions from a set of facts, you should be held to the same set of standards as any broadcaster while doing so. Noone should buy into this false dichotomy between opinion programming and news programming promulgated by Fox.

Why, oh why, would Mrs. Dan Senor deliberately distort the views of MSNBC vs. Fox? Go figure.

Comfort , celebrity , and security are found in path worn shiny , i.e. , rising apprentice writer etc , to a speciality niche for corporate shilling .
That is if I read the ever sharp barbs distributed full circle throughout the events of the day by the often mildly outraged and occasionally disgruntled Bob Somerby .

"Why is this so difficult for the mainstream to understand?" Come on , Steve, do you REALLY think it's because they "don't understand"? Really? Yes or no?

Brown does understand, as do her masters in Atlanta. If Fox is right, and msnbc is left then CNN can take the center. They love this fox-driven pissing match.

"Why is this so difficult for the mainstream to understand?"

Why is it so difficult for Steve Benen to understand that ALL of the corporate media are essentially reading from the same playbook?

I hope this story stays alive until it's no longer a story. A powerful media empire presenting partisan, hatemongering propaganda as news is a real danger to a free society. Fox News is this century's Der Stürmer, and it's this country's disgrace that we have citizens ignorant and stupid enough to be under its thrall.

Second the motion on the "Mrs. Dan Senor" remark. BTW, despite his long involvement with the neocon network and GOP politics, I'm fairly sure Senor, a Canadian by birth, is only a U.S. citizen by virtue of his 2006 marriage.

And let's remember too THAT CNN ITSELF hired GLEN BECK to do his filth on their channel.

First of all, Steve, I understand your reluctance to add fuel to this fire, but either way you're screwed. If other prog/lib sites followed your lead and stopped talking about hoe ridiculous the battle between the White House and Fox News is, right-leaning sites would take your silence as a silent shame, "they know the White House is targeting Fox for bringing 'the truth' to the people, and they're ashamed of their beloved hero Obama, so they say nothing and hope the story goes away, but WE WON'T LET IT!"

Second of all, CNN's comments are that unique combination of desperation and laziness. As has been said, the underlying theme is "Fox skews right, MSNBC skews left, we're in the middle...JUST LIKE YOU, AMERICA! So why aren't you watching US?"

The talking point to be pressed is that Fox vs. MSNBC is "Republican talking points versus objective opinion based on accurate fact." Not as catchy, but it does have the advantage of being true.

I keep saying, if someone looks into the Nielsen system and ratings, we'll most likely find out that Fox News doesn't really have all the viewers that's being reported. There's a fix in place and it's all about money.

this insane drivel called "news" or "cable news" is too stoopid to be called journalism -- at all. it is all very cheap, very ludicrous 'entertainment' and is rotting the minds of americans in ways allen ginzberg probably had glimmers of but couldn't imagine today.

a decent society couldn't stomach this stuff for five minutes on any of the channels.

and fox news is only the flavor of hate, anger and fear...which simply makes the craziness that much more intense and horrifying.

if you dont watch you dont hafta eat the shit.

Why is this so difficult for the mainstream to understand?

I think as individuals they understand, but rather than narrow their range of potential future employers in advance, theyhave decided to keep quiet.

It's yet another example of how they've bought into the idea that "balance" is the only way to be unbiased, even if it's completely unsupported by the facts.

It's in the same class with the frequent 'news' blather that "well, there are extreme views on both sides," without mentioning that the extreme views on one side are echoed and reinforced by GOP senators and congressmen and the extreme views on the other side are never mentioned approvingly by anyone in power.

Why is it so hard?

As Sinclair Lewis said "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it."

The sad truth of the modern American mediaplex is that it has been entirely complicit in the dumbing-down and sensationalizing of news coverage, and it requires forcing any story into a contentious dichotomy between two equal poles, no matter how inaccurate that portrayal may be.

The people who have a problem with that don't last long in the industry in America today.

Mainstream that appear not to get it, are basically trying to protect their careers. To honestly evaluate FOX to take it out their own equations for career prospects. This along with fear of being ostracized within the "profession" as well as becoming right wing attack victims go a long way to not seeing FOX as something totally and monstrously not-journalism.

The news section of every network has always been highly subsidized by the entertainment section; one reason the daily newscasts were something like 2 hours (local/national total) against 16 hours for entertainment. The network executives hated that! But it was part of the agreement they made when they got their licenses to use the "public" airwaves.
Cable got around that by simply not using the "public" airwaves. Unfortunately, to properly do a 24/7 news channel requires a LOT of money for research, writers, journalists, all sorts of technicians, travel, etc. That was first handled by going after the "business" class; they needed to know what was happening to help them make "important" decisions (whether or not to go to Aruba or Jamaica for golf?) so the commercials were aimed at them.
There weren't enough "business" types, so either the cable network had to shut down (NOES!!!) or else it had to start doing something to increase viewership and, consequently, revenues.
That's what we're stuck with now.

A few years ago I watched a lot of Fox News for a few weeks (to the great annoyance of my wife). Having worked in a variety of newsrooms and settings such as gubernatorial and legislative offices, what immediately registered was that the outline for each segment was the daily White House talking points. The most favored ones turned into news stories over the next four hours and the point of view framed the live interview questions and it was sort of entertaining to watch one of the numerous blonde newsettes try to nudge the interviewee back in line with the prevailing spin. I really got some entertainment out of this for a while, but eventually, the thought that this perversion of a news operation was incredibly persuasive to many of my fellow citizens killed my appetite for further zany adventures in the land of 'Fair and Balanced.' Having done media strategy myself, I have very mixed emotions about the White House 'campaign,' though so far, about all it has amounted to is a shot over the Fox bow. I guess that if your historical perspective doesn't extend past last week, you wouldn't know that President Nixon was talking about a real war with the media, like yanking CBS TV licenses. The George Santayana quote is cited constantly, but it's unavoidable: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” Often in the reporting trade, there are mistakes made innocently in the heat of the moment. These are left to be sorted out later. In its pathetic journalistic activities, Fox is distorting that 'first rough draft of history' and it's a matter of company policy rather than legitimate newsgathering error.

The very fact that the network can continue to call itself "FOX News" proves we have robust free speech rights in this country. Clearly that part of our first amendment rights trumps truth in advertising law.

The MSM cannot, or more likely will not, distinguish between fact and opinion.

So for Campbell Brown to say that MSNBC and Fox are the same, is not much different than having a scientist say the earth is 6 billion years old, then get a creationist to say it is 6,000 years old, and present that as fact v fact, or opinion v opinion, and you have your "story".

That is not news.