Spin Cycle

Hillary spokesman/strategist Howard Wolfson is rejoining his lobbying/public affairs firm Glover Park and also joining Karl Rove and Lanny Davis as a commentator at Fox "News." Having perfected boss-flattery on the Clinton campaign, he showers some on the new employer:

“I thought that Fox’s coverage during the primary was comprehensive and fair and evenhanded. It’s a huge audience, and it is important to have a strong, progressive voice on the network.”

Presumably, he thinks of either himself or Lanny Davis as the "strong progressive voice." But if they're already "comprehensive and fair and evenhanded," why do they need anything?

At places like Fox, "news" is to a large degree presented as a vaudeville troupe of performing partisans who present misleading information to the audience from different perspectives, enveloping the viewers in one or another set of deeply believed distortions. It's simpler than hiring actual reporters to find actual facts and present them objectively, and one of the things that is really contributing to the health of our democracy.

Fox is comprehensive and fair and evenhanded? In the sense of that poll in 2003 that found Fox viewers were more likely than viewers of other networks to hold misconceptions about the war in Iraq -- that Iraq had WMD, and that Saddam was tied to al Qaeda, against all evidence? Or just in the sense of they kissed up to Hillary and now they're paying me to say things like that?

Already, Wolfson fits right in.