"Be On The Lookout For" Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" Bias

I tried to post this leaked Fox News internal memo about a hundred times last night (OK, that's an exaggeration: but it was at least 37), even before Minor Ripper left his comment about it here:

How normally sane people can see this network as 'fair and balanced' is beyond my comprehension. It goes to show the power of slick propaganda. Isn't it ironic, though that the new English language version of Al Jazeerah is up and running on a Rupert Murdoch owned network in Britain? Hey, business is business I guess....

Read the memo posted at Huffington Post along with the commentary (quoted below) from Media Matters:

...The Huffington Post website posted "an internal Fox News memo written by the network's Vice President of news," which "details Fox's game plan the day Democrats won control of both the Senate and the House." According to the memo: "The elections and [former Defense Secretary Donald H.] Rumsfeld's resignation were a major event, but not the end of the world," and: "The war on terror goes on without interruption."

The Huffington Post highlighted the memo's suggestion to "be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress."

The memo also smeared House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), a candidate for House majority leader, noting: "In the House, the newly empowered Dems will shed some fraternal blood before settling in. [Rep. John P.] Murtha [D-PA] will challenge Hoyer for the leadership. A former hawk v. a political hack." The memo concluded: "Just because Dems won, the war on terror isn't over."

The Huffington Post identified the memo's alleged author only as "the network's Vice President of news." The header at the top of the memo identifies the "Writer" as "moody." John Moody is Fox News' senior vice president for news editorial. According to his Fox News biography, Moody "is responsible for both the design and editorial direction of FOX News Channel and oversees all story content for FOX News." As Media Matters for America and Salon.com have noted, some of Moody's daily memos to Fox News staffers, described as "marching orders" by a former Fox News employee, were highlighted in documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald's 2004 film, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (Brave New Films).