I stopped listening at 6:50. Zurawik ("ZUR-a-wick," Keith) implied that everyone but Chris Matthews isn't upfront about their ideology...or some crap like that. Is he kidding? I know Zurawik isn't an "ideologue" or "on the take," but he has it wrong about the Fox personalities. But I get his point: cable news has been poisoned by opinion. He's right, but I like the opinions--plural, not singular--that Fox puts out. The opinions range from the right to the left with both sides given a fair shake.
Zurawik brought up Greta's interview with Sarah Palin. What about her interviews with Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and other Democrats?
In conclusion, David Zurawik has been critical of FNC, CNN, *and* MSNBC; teeing off fans of all three channels. I'm a fan of FNC, and I have been teed off. I'm not hopping mad as I write; I just disagree. Nevertheless, I thank him for tearing into the infamous, deplorable Keith Skeebermann.

I agree w/ Zurawik about something, Keith Olbermann wouldn't know the meaning of irony if it walked up and kicked him in the junk. You could take more than half of what he says during his rants and apply it directly back to him. Blind ideologue...check. Makes criticisms of how other media outlets (who happen to be more successful than his) are run...check. Each day's effort is just louder and louder criticism of those he does not like politically...check, check.

Really Olbermann called himself WPITW for the upteenth time.

I agree with some of what you said Mike, but before the last election Matthews was somewhat respectable, and as Zurawik said Matthews was brought down to Bathtub Boy's level during the last election.

I do think his observation of Gretta and her Palin interviews was out of line. Gretta is about as down the middle as they come, and for the record she was the only one who gave Palin a positive. And probably still is. Gretta isn't a smear merchant, and she doesn't interview to do so or ask hard questions, she gives people a chance to be themselves.

But despite Zurawik's critic of FNC, he did say they seem to be the only ones doing real journalism. And MSNBC plays reruns of Lock Down and To Catch a Predator.

And Sean Hannity is too conservative even for me, but his Great American Panel even's it out, if he didn't have that his show wouldn't be as good as it is.

What Zurawik really wanted was another Curic/Palin type confrontation, instead of the kinda interview the MSM always gives democrats.

As far as FNC goes, other than Fox & Friends, Beck and Hannity, the rest of their programing is pretty fair. At least on Hannity and O'Reilly, opposing voices are allowed to be heard. I suspect the closest thing to what Olbermann does is Beck, but I don't know if he debates ppl or not - I don't watch Beck.

As I've mentioned in previous posts this week, David Zurawik gave a masterful critique of MSNBC and Olbermann in particular. He's not a Fox News lacky, thankfully, and that gives him extra credibility, in my humble opinion. Too bad Mike C. "just couldn't listen" past the 6:50 mark, as Zurawick saved some estute FNC analysis for the final 30 seconds, and it was praising and spot-on.

Beck has opposing people, but just like BOR he runs into the people who won't appear on his show, or if they do they demand to have stipulations. And his debates are anything but real debates cause Beck is a goofy fellow and doesn't take any of his guest seriously, except when he had the Acorn whistle blowers on, he was serious on that. But he wasn't debating them.

Thing is Beck isn't trying to pass off his ideology as news, he knows his show is opinionated and doesn't try to hide it. Bathtub Boy is the exact opposite to Beck, everytime KO starts a story with " I wish it would go away, but they won't let it " means he's really pushing his ideology and not doing real journalism.

I listened to the rest, Dan. He praised FNC by basically saying "yeah, they're reporting is good, but they're still really partisan because of Sean Hannity." (NOTE: I'm saying that's basically what he said, not exactly what he said.) Please don't think I'm knocking you by saying that, Dan.

The one place where Keith stands alone is that he is the most partisan and yet bills his show as a "News Hour". BOR, Hannity, Beck all are upfront that they are news analysis and opinion shows. Hannity and Beck bill themselves as conservatives. Keith thinks he can claim objectivity because he doesn't vote and reserves his opinions for a "Speshul Komment". Keith fools no one yet he continues the charade. Knock youself out, Keith.

And Glenn and Bill have the most entertaining shows. I can't vouch for Sean, but I know the Great American Panel is always entertaining.

This is more on topic from the top of this comment post, but i saw the phone interview that Chris Matthews had with Roland Burris two nights ago on his show. Suprisingly, he didnt throw softballs and the interview actually lived up to the shows name. He grilled him pretty hard on the pay-to-play tapes released by the FBI. I dont know if this is a trend he is trying to start, performing real journalism or if he just thought it was a good ratings boost. Id be curious to see his numbers from Wednesday night.

Regardless, he let out a small ray of light from that network that its possible for someone to bypass their political ideology and challenge the powerful, even someone who believes as they do.