What matters to Fox News

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Yes, yes, I know most of you know perfectly well what matters to Fox News: the success of the Republican Party and the failure of the Democratic Party, the celebration of conservatism and the condemnation of liberalism, low-brow American nationalism at the expense of the rest of the world.

And ratings. Of course. Ratings at the expense of the news, the elevation of the trivial over the serious.

Not that the point needs to be proven, but here's Think Progress on the latest example of "fairness" and "balance":

Our national media embarrassment was again on full display on Friday. Both MSNBC and Fox News devoted more coverage to Anna Nicole Smith — three weeks after her death on Feb. 8 — than they did to the multiple developments involving the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed military hospital.

The most lop-sided coverage by far was aired by Fox News, which featured only 10 references to Walter Reed compared to 121 of Anna Nicole — roughly 12 times the coverage. MSNBC featured 84 references to Walter Reed and 96 to Anna Nicole.

Fox is not alone -- MSNBC can be pretty awful, too, if not nearly as overtly biased, and this problem afflicts cable news generally -- but it clearly has an interest, a partisan interest, in downplaying the military scandal that is proving to be yet another atrocious embarrassment for the Bush Administration.

Make sure to watch the video at Think Progress, a greatest hits of the "coverage".

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For more on this and the scandal, see The Carpetbagger Report, The Mahablog, and, on the right, Outside the Beltway.

You can find WaPo's excellent coverage of the scandal here, including photos of Walter Reed here.