MSNBC has gleefully posted on its site the soon-to-be famous David Bauder AP piece poking fun at Fox News for its habit of wishing its detractors well.
But Fox News still gets the last laugh: it's actually a cute, laugh-out-loud funny piece that showcases the quick-thinking wit of the winners on its team:
If someone at Fox News Channel wishes you well, watch your back.
The seemingly benign sentiment is a creative signature of Fox's public relations, usually accompanied by a kneecapping. It's something like a kiss from a Mafia don.
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was the latest to visit the wishing well. When The New York Times recently asked Fox its opinion of Olbermann, who has repeatedly used Bill O'Reilly as a pinata on his nightly news countdown, spokeswoman Irena Briganti replied:
"Because of his personal demons, Keith has imploded everywhere he's worked. From lashing out at co-workers to personally attacking Bill O'Reilly and all things Fox, it's obvious Keith is a train wreck waiting to happen. And like all train wrecks, people might tune in out of morbid curiosity, but they eventually tune out, as evidenced by Keith's recent ratings decline. In the meantime, we hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder and wish him well on his inevitable trip to oblivion."
Have a nice day, Keith!
Plainly, public relations is a contact sport at Fox News Channel--with, as Fox PR chief Brian Lewis explains, a sense of mischief sprinkled in.
"Has there ever been a more disingenuous phrase in the corporate handbook, or the PR handbook, than `we wish him well'?" asked Lewis. "`Earnings have fallen in the last eight quarters and we wish Joe well as he leaves the company to pursue other interests.' We know what they mean, so we just thought we'd have some fun and point out the hypocrisy of the term."
Read on, and feel sorry for poor MSNBC, which once again tried to be the lovable, victimized underdog yet remains unmistakably the bitter loser.
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» FNC wishing a detractor well? The nerve! MSNBC would prefer boiling oil, or perhaps stoning?
