The White House is losing the battle against Fox News, as I predicted it would. See here for a New York Times story. One thing progressives are good at is imaginatively identifying with others. Think back to President Obama's statement that each country, and not just the United States, believes it is "exceptional." That wasn't the question. The question was whether he thinks the United States is exceptional. Instead of answering that simple question, which would have revealed one of his attachments, identities, or loyalties, he took the detached, cosmopolitan perspective. He got out of his skin, as it were, and tried to see things from a God's-eye perspective (sub specie aeternitatis). As I say, progressives are good at this. It is why so many of them are moral relativists.
Most journalists, it is safe to say, are progressives, or at least liberals. They may despise Fox News for its conservative leanings, but they can imaginatively identify with Fox News's reporters, who are being snubbed by the White House. "I wouldn't want to be treated like that," they think, and it leads them to side with the Fox News reporters. I predict that many so-called mainstream media organizations, including the New York Times (but excluding MSNBC, which has long since passed over to the lunatic fringe), will eventually turn on the White House for its heavy-handed tactics. Journalists will be journalists first and progressives/liberals second. Deep down, they know that this is the right thing to do, both for their own sake (as journalists) and for the sake of the country. Their self-respect, which has been damaged but not destroyed, will prevent them from becoming (or in some cases continuing to be) White House sycophants.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 