krebscycle

For a number of years, liberals/left and many just fair minded people have noticed the obvious, that Fox News is a branch of the Republican Party – or perhaps the Republican Party is a branch of Fox News.  It’s not a novel observation that Fox News presents viewers with a hermetically sealed ideological bubble, protected from any facts that might disturb the Conservative point of view. They also organize and promote things like the Tea Party rallies, provide lucrative jobs and exposure for GOP politicians who are between political jobs, and even pick candidates.  If you had asked a liberal reporter or commentator about this 3 years ago or 5 or 10, few would have said anything else, and for good reason – that’s the weight of the evidence. Here’s a typical note from The Nation

Standing at the epicenter of the network—and any new Republican Party groundswell—is Ailes. A former political operative of President Richard Nixon, Ailes has inextricably intertwined his professional and political pursuits since founding Fox News in 1996. Indeed, the network chief functions as a kind of proxy kingmaker within the party, frequently meeting with Republican politicians to offer strategic advice. He is a regular confidant of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, and at various times, he (or a network emissary of his) has counseled 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Gen. David Petraeus on their potential future. “Ailes,” says former Reagan White House economic adviser Bruce Bartlett, “is quite open about offering his free advice to Republicans…. If you visit New York City, you go see Roger Ailes and kiss his ring. It’s like visiting the Vatican. My guess is that there’s a lot of back-and-forth between Ailes and whoever is at the pinnacle of power in the Republican Party." 

Read more: The GOP-Fox Circus Act | The Nation

So does the US Constitution protect the rights of a political party that is out of office to induce government officials to, for example, reveal secret diplomatic information that may involve secret agents in hostile foreign governments?  No.  Of course not.  The only possible exception would be when that information revealed gross malfeasance or criminality by the government.

And then we note that according to the James Rosen subpoena, a Fox news employee at least led a Government contract employee to believe he could gain material rewards ( a think tank job) by revealing US intelligence about North Korea and potentially exposing covert sources of information.  So why did the Liberal Press and Punditry suddenly decide that Fox News was not a branch of the Republican party but was a brave battalion of the Free Press?  Mysterious no?