Writing in today’s Washington Post, former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines argues that “honest journalists” should take on Roger Ailes and Fox News Channel for, in his words, “using the network to conduct a propaganda campaign against the Obama administration.”
Through clever use of the Fox News Channel and its cadre of raucous commentators, Ailes has overturned standards of fairness and objectivity that have guided American print and broadcast journalists since World War II. Yet, many members of my profession seem to stand by in silence as Ailes tears up the rulebook that served this country well as we covered the major stories of the past three generations … My great fear, however, is that some journalists of my generation who once prided themselves on blowing whistles and afflicting the comfortable have also been intimidated by Fox’s financial power and expanding audience, as well as Ailes’s proven willingness to dismantle the reputation of anyone who crosses him.
A Fox News spokesperson responds to TVNewser, “We find it ironic that Howell is dispensing advice to other journalists after he nearly single-handedly destroyed the journalistic credibility of the New York Times.” (RE: This)