Originally Posted by Southern Man

The evidence is based on the fact that FNC advertised itself as "fair and balanced" from the get-go and is its single most differentiating attribute. Also, FNC started after all these other news networks, and grew each year until it outpaced all of them.

What other characteristic would you posit that viewers are attracted to?

Originally Posted by Jojo

Yeah - look how unfair it is!! They are actually editing his interviews to make him look competent!

McCain Falsely Claims The Surge ‘Began The Anbar Awakening,’ But CBS Edits It Out»

During an interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), CBS Evening News host Katie Couric noted that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said recently that “there might have been improved security [in Iraq] even without the surge” and asked McCain, “What’s your response to that?”

After first calling Obama’s claim “a false depiction of what actually happened,” McCain proceeded to falsely claim that the surge “began the Anbar awakening“:

McCAIN: I don’t know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that’s just a matter of history.

But in a puzzling move, the CBS Evening News did not actually televise McCain’s false claim tonight. As MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann reported, “CBS curiously, to say the least, left it on the edit room floor. It aired Katie Couric’s question, but in response, it inserted part of McCain’s answer to another question instead.”

In fact, the Sunni revolt against Al-Qaida in Iraq’s Anbar province — commonly referred to as “The Awakening” — “began” long before Bush even announced his “surge” policy in January 2007. As the New York Times noted in April 2007:

The turnabout began last September [2006], when a federation of tribes in the Ramadi area came together as the Anbar Salvation Council to oppose the fundamentalist militants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

But also, President Bush himself noted this fact in a speech to the Naval War College in June, 2007:

Last September [2006], Anbar was all over the news. It was held up as an example of America’s failure in Iraq. The papers cited a leaked intelligence report that was pessimistic about our prospects there. […]

About the same time some folks were writing off Anbar, our troops were methodically clearing Anbar’s capital city of Ramadi of terrorists, and winning the trust of the local population. In parallel with these efforts, a group of tribal sheiks launched a movement called “The Awakening” — and began cooperating with American and Iraqi forces.

Spencer Ackerman notes that the colonel McCain cited is “now a one-star general” and had explained the “Awakening” to a reporter in September 2006 “before it even had a name.” “For McCain to say that the Anbar Awakening is the product of the surge is either a lie or professional malpractice,” added Ackerman.

Think Progress But CBS Edits It Out

Originally Posted by Michael

Isn't interesting when Iraqis are making the right decisions, such as turn on Al Qaeda, and then (all too typical American way of thinking) we are arguing for which American gets the credit.

Originally Posted by Southern Man

1. Actually there is: Marginal Revolution: Surprise! Fox News is Fair and Balanced!
2. I gave you my thoughts on that in a rational progression, and I am patiently waiting for your opposing logical progression.

Originally Posted by Southern Man

Perhaps Grim is as bored with you as I am.