The responsible media, or at least those in the media who like to think of themselves as responsible, can't control talk radio and Drudge and Fox, but they can stop taking their cues from them and they can stop legitimizing them by running around going on their shows or having them on as guests. They can, if they want to, close off the puke funnel. They can, if they want to, take responsibility for what they choose to report on instead pretending they're just passive conduits for all this crap.
And that's giving them the benefit of the doubt, which, for me anyway, is pretty damned strained at this point, after years of their irresponsible behavior.
If they are what they say they intend to be, non-partisan, unbiased and neutral, then they have got to begin to behave in that manner, instead of doing petty stuff like this.
A commenter on another thread (elsewhere) writes about
the continual drumbeat by the MSM of Right Wing propaganda. It is subtle...the way a headline is written, the slant of a story, the omission of tremendously important stories that would make the administration look bad. And the drumbeat is not recent.....it has droned on for years;
These aren't the fringe thoughts of a fanatic, they're the commonplace observations of everyone who isn't a wingnut or Republican shill who's observed the change in the mainstream media in the past couple of decades.
The steps Atrios talks about aren't structurally, fiscally, technically or journalistically untenable, they're very doable and should be desireable -- it just takes the will to change, which the media, as a whole, has shown not an inkling of.
