JournoList Day Two: Shouldn't the Federal Gov't Do Something About This Fox News Problem?

[Valin]

The Weekly Standard:

Mary Katharine Ham
7/21/10
Mary Katharine Ham

We are on Day Two of JournoList revelations at The Daily Caller.

Yesterday, we found out that liberal bloggers don't like conservatives, that writers employed by The Nation think America has the blood of millions of innocents on its hands, and that both would have liked to convince the media to ignore the rantings of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in favor of covering Obama's policy press releases. Spencer Ackerman's call to smear conservatives as racist to distract from the Wright story was notable for its candor and naked partisan motivation, removing the veil of moral authority from liberals' cries of racism.

Today we learn more about mainstream players at national outlets, which is the more interesting part of the JournoList. Among the ideas that raise less objection than they should— wishing in graphic detail to witness the death of Rush Limbaugh and using the federal government to shut down a cable news network one doesn't like.

To his credit, Michael Sherer of Time magazine argues against the idea of the federal government yanking broadcast rights of Fox News, but everyone seems pretty much agreed that more government regulation of media should be used to deal with the Fox problem. At one point, a law professor suggests the FCC could opt not to renew Fox's broadcast license, and a writer for the Guardian favorably references Britain's libel laws, which presume writers guilty until proven innocent.