Debra Saunders writes, “media watchers should appreciate how Fox, which tilts right, has provided balance to major new operations such as CNN and the New York Times, which tilt left.” But she cautions conservatives not to limit themselves to only likeminded viewpoints (h/t Brandon B.):
Do I like everything on Fox? No. I hit the remote when feuding talking heads are spouting prefab talking points and I can get a real news story on CNN. (Other times, I turn to Fox to escape the same on CNN.) I also turn to Fox because its coverage on the war in Iraq takes the longer view, and its coverage on intelligence eavesdropping does not read like an ACLU press release.
But I don’t like how Fox News leads some conservatives to believe they should not be exposed to liberal media, just as some Chronicle readers are indignant at the very thought that they — or their friends — should have to suffer exposure to a dissenting point of view (e.g., mine). When people have a strict diet of Designer News, they run the danger of thinking — à la [NYT reporter Linda] Greenhouse — that their opinions are fact.
Greenhouse was called out on that by the NYT’s public editor this weekend.