The partisan lines in cable news have “never been drawn” more neatly than they are now, said Brian Stelter in The New York Times. With the promotion of Air America radio host Rachel Maddow to a prime-time slot, MSNBC, home of Bush administration critic Keith Olbermann, is now a clear liberal foil to the conservative Fox News, and the independent-aiming CNN.
“I really like Maddow and have found her thoroughly compelling throughout this latest campaign season,” said Sacha Zimmerman in The New Republic’s The Plank blog, “but I am not so thrilled about this trend toward partisan networks and news.” The split on TV and the “near perfect red-blue divide nationwide” is only encouraging Americans to retreat more and more “to our comfortable trenches and refusing to acknowledge anything but spite, paranoia, and conspiracy theory when it comes to the other side.”
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