Paul Begala on Fox Noise: We Report -- Even if We Know It's False

For those of you on the right wing who have criticized us for referring to Rupert Murdoch's mouthpiece as Fox Noise, or Fixed News...this is why we do so:

I've been dealing with the media and politics for 25 years, but I've never had a more surrealistic day than January 8. Several times that day Fox News reported that I was joining Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign. It was a big story - at least until the stunning election returns.

The only problem was, it wasn't true.

Fox News never even tried to contact me to verify their story, and when I contacted Fox, I felt like a character in a Kafka novel -- or at least Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Fox's Major Garrett -- a good guy whom I've known for years -- broke the story. My phone started ringing off the hook, and my email box bulged. There are still, thank goodness, a lot of real journalists out there. Tim Russert was first. I assured him it wasn't true, he thanked me for waving him off a false story, and that was that. Then my own network, CNN, called. I told them if I were quitting CNN that CNN would know before Fox News. Soon after, others called or emailed: Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, George Stephanopoulos and Teddy Davis of ABC, Beth Fouhy of AP, Mark Halperin of Time, John Harris of the Politico, Jill Lawrence of USA Today, Peter Baker of the Washington Post, Patrick Healy of the New York Times, David Gregory of NBC and Bill Sammon of the Examiner. There were probably more. I list the names only to give credit to journalists who behaved like reporters, not repeaters.

You can read the whole thing, including Begala's email exchange with Garrett, at the Huffington Post (where Garrett unbelievably says he will take Begala's note "under advisement". Um...what? There's a source who knows more about Paul Begala than...Paul Begala? I mean...what on earth?)

Using Fox Noise or Fixed News to refer to Fox is not demeaning. It's simply accurate. The truth is, Fox just doesn't care about the truth.