2008-07-07 When Fox News Is the Story

2008-07-07 New York Times David Carr \Fox News\mainstream media\self-censorship http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/business/media/07carr.html When Fox News Is the Story &ldquo;Like most working journalists, whenever I type seven letters – Fox News – a series of alarms begins to whoop in my head: ''Danger. Warning. Much mayhem ahead.''&rdquo;  Like most working journalists, whenever I type seven letters – Fox News – a series of alarms begins to whoop in my head: ''Danger. Warning. Much mayhem ahead.''

Once the public relations apparatus at Fox News is engaged, there will be the calls to my editors, keening (and sometimes threatening) e-mail messages, and my requests for interviews will quickly turn into depositions about my intent or who else I am talking to.

And if all that stuff doesn't slow me down and I actually end up writing something, there might be a large hangover: Phone calls full of rebuke for a dependent clause in the third to the last paragraph, a ritual spanking in the blogs with anonymous quotes that sound very familiar, and – if I really hit the jackpot – the specter of my ungainly headshot appearing on one of Fox News's shows along with some stern copy about what an idiot I am.   