Regan's Claim Reveals the Real Fox

Suit could end Fox masquerade of neutrality: Tomasky

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 20, 2007 7:11 PM CST

(Newser) – After 11 years of “the rabbit hole fiction” that Fox News is unbiased, the jig may be up, claims the Guardian’s American editor, Michael Tomasky. An admitted liberal journalist himself, Tomasky thinks it's time Fox stopped pretending not to be a conservative voice, as its audience clearly understands it to be. And he thinks the lawsuit from Judith Regan, "the, um, brains behind the OJ Simpson If I Did It mediapalooza," could be the thing that ends the charade.

Regan claims that Fox execs told her to "lie to, and withhold information from" investigators about her ex-lover—and former NYC police commissioner—Bernard Kerik, after he was charged with mob ties. "If proven someday, Fox will no longer be able to hide behind the fiction that it's a neutral news outfit," Tomasky writes. He has no problem with bias—he admits his own—but wants to see Fox stop claiming to "play it straight."

[Images (4)]

[Videos (1)]

Ambassador Ryan Crocker, left, and Gen. David Petraeus, center, take part in an interview with Brit Hume on FOX News on Monday, Sept. 10, 2007 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (Associated Press)

Judith Regan is photographed in the studio of her "Judith Regan Show" on Sirius satellite radio in this 2006 file photo in New York. One-time book publishing powerhouse Judith Regan filed a $100 million... (Associated Press)

In this photo provided by FOX News, first lady Laura Bush appears on "Fox News Sunday" in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007. (AP Photo/FOX News Sunday, Freddie Lee) (Associated Press)

News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi arrive at the Fox Business Network's Launch Party, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007, in New York. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano) (Associated Press)

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Regan's Claim Reveals the Real Fox