Today, something different: a defense of Fox News. As everyone knows, Fox is possessive and proud of their tag-line, “Fair and Balanced”. Whatever the left might say, they are indeed balanced. Externally. See, they never explicitly say as much (even though their defenders do), but they feel they are balancing out the news delivered by other “elite” media: NBC, CNN, NPR, BBC, etc. Unabashedly conservative, the folks at Fox News are offering a corrective to what they view as leftist flap. I would argue, however, that what they are doing is balancing out the market-driven decision making among the other prominent providers of information. Other networks are clinging to an outdated notion of journalism: impartiality. This is the great experiment of Fox News. It’s not a conservative revolution in news, per se, but rather a revolution in the world of partisan journalism. George Washington strove to avoid a separation of America into a dichotomy of parties; he felt it was essential to provide the American people with a collective identity. Clearly, this was not to be. Fox News is simply a vehicle by which the partisan nature of our political system can extend its character into the conventions of journalism. Channel-surfing these days only highlights this trend. All the major cable (and network) news outfits are airing the developments of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Fox News, on the other hand, is airing pop culture stories, human interest bits regarding American citizens brutalized by South American guerilla movements, Palestinian attacks in the West Bank, anti-“terror” maneuvers in Iraq, frivolous medical lawsuits, etc. See? They’re providing balance. If it weren’t for Fox News, I would never have learned that Alan King had died in a timely fashion [confusing grammar intended].