As you all have probably seen, TPM just posted a thoroughly depressing video showing Clinton flacks Lanny Davis and Terry McAuliffe praising Fox News for their balanced coverage, and praising Karl Rove for his electoral analyses.

I've spent several years working in media criticism, and I've devoted countless hours to debunking myriad false claims and smears about the Clintons that abound in the media, which is probably why I find Davis' and McAuliffe's comments to be infuriating at several levels.

First and foremost, Fox News is very much part of the right-wing smear machine that emerged in the 1990s
with the sole purpose of destroying Bill and Hillary Clinton. To see Clintonites praise the network for its coverage as a matter of political expediency is not only disillusioning, it kinda makes a mockery of all the work done by those who have defended the Clintons from Fox and its ilk. So, Lanny and Terry, thanks for that.

Second, Fox News' coverage of the Democratic campaign has been anything but balanced, though it has been engineered to appear that way. You can call it "false balance" -- giving equal time and consideration to two issues or stories, even though one is less deserving of such coverage and scrutiny.

A fine example of the perils of "false balance" comes from the 2004 election, when then-ABC News political director Mark Halperin wrote a memo to his staff urging them to hold Bush and Kerry accountable for misstatements, but not to suggest parity between Bush's and Kerry's misstatements simply for the sake of "balance." Some misstatements are worse than others, and Bush lied more than Kerry. To simply say "both candidates do it" would create a false balance.

Fox News is doing just that. While CNN and MSNBC have been acknowledging the obvious -- that Sen. Clinton has no path to the nomination -- Fox News steadfastly refuses to and reports on the Democratic nomination as if it is still up for grabs. Indeed, during the run-up to last night's primaries, the only Oregon poll they cared about was the Suffolk University outlier that showed a four-point race. The PPP and other polls showing a double-digit Obama lead may as well not have existed. According to Fox, the Oregon race was "tightening." That's the sort of "balance" Lanny and Terry find so appealing.

And, of course, Fox News has two very good reasons for maintaining the illusion of an up-for-grabs Democratic race: the longer the Democratic primary drags on, the better it is for McCain; and Clinton flacks like Lanny and Terry will come on their airwaves and provide fodder for their "Fair & Balanced" commercials.

Seriously, watching Laura Ingraham triumphantly gloat that a Clintonite had come around to the specious "liberal media bias" point of view was infuriating. Then watching her rub it in Lanny's face and ask him to repeat the dogma, and watching him dutifully repeat it, was sickening.