Staunchly conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) issued a surprising warning to a friendly town hall crowd this week: "Don’t catch yourself being biased by Fox News." Coburn urged the right-leaning audience to broaden their news diets and singled out Fox for offering misleading information on health care reform and demonizing certain politicians — notably, he emphasized that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is "a nice lady." Is Coburn right to caution conservatives about Fox? (Watch Keith Olbermann respond to Tom Coburn's comments)
Trashing Fox is good politics — even for right-wingers: Coburn is helping the country by taking on the "Fox-fueled notion that Americans are at war with each other," says Jed Lewison at the Daily Kos. But he's practicing "smart politics," too. As long as the GOP is "dominated by the invective and vitriol spewed forth by Glenn Beck and the Fox News Channel," Americans will "never, ever" return them to power.
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