If the high-class version of Newshounds.us, "media misinformation monitoring" organization Media Matters for America, ever hires an ombudsman, I hope they make it a veterinarian. Because trying to follow the logic of their constant attacks on Fox News (such attacks being Media Matters' real raison d'être) is like watching a dog chasing its tail until you get dizzy.
Take, for example, MM's latest beef with Fox News--with the host of the most watched business news show on television, FNC's Neil Cavuto, specifically. Media Matters is up in arms, pointing its finger, smugly angry as heck, because...well, it's not really clear why:
On the June 1 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto complained that "the media is all over" the alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha, Iraq, but that there has been "virtually no coverage of the daily savage attacks by insurgents on Iraqi civilians and our troops." Onscreen text during the segment read: "Blatant Bias?" But Cavuto has previously alleged that "all you see in the media out of Iraq are the insurgent activity, our soldiers getting killed or hurt." In fact, just one day before Cavuto claimed that the media have ignored insurgent attacks in Iraq, he invited Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on to Your World to discuss whether "beheadings and roadside bombs, suicide attacks" in Iraq are "being blown out of proportion by the media." Onscreen text during this segment read: "Media Bias?"
I just love it when Media Matters creates its own little circular firing squad like this. Let me see if I have this straight: Media Matters is mad because Neil Cavuto is pointing out that a) the MSM is covering Haditha like crazy and b) the media is also covering insurgent violence like crazy, except when there's a giant story like Haditha in the mix, in which case Haditha gets the lion's share of coverage.
There's no legitimate argument against Cavuto in Media Matters' complaint, but let's be honest here: what Media Matters really objects to is that Fox News is on the air providing fair and balanced coverage at all. So they threw a dart at a photo montage of FNC personalities yesterday and it landed on Neil Cavuto's picture, and they picked a nonsensical fight--conveniently ignoring when different stories break and thus become news--with Cavuto and hoped that no one would notice the nonsensical part. Too bad for Media Matters that hoping's not good enough.
