Fox Unleashes Attack Dogs on Other Media

The Fox News public relations machine makes no bones about skewering those it perceives as foes, writes David Carr in the New York Times. “At Fox News, media relations is a kind of rolling opposition research operation intended to keep reporters in line by feeding and sometimes maiming them,” Carr notes. It deals with the press “more like a political campaign” than a news organization, says one reporter.

When a Times reporter recently wrote an objective piece on CNN’s progress in cable-news ratings, Fox News presenters labeled him an “attack dog” alongside his image, altered to give him a bigger nose and ears. Other reporters deemed opponents are crushed in the blogosphere. “We are an aggressive department in a passive industry,” explained the station’s PR head. "We embrace controversy." (More Fox News stories.)