'NYT' Writer Opens a Can of Truth on Fox News

God bless David Carr of The New York Times for writing the column that so many TV-beat writers have wanted to write for so long -- the one about Fox News's ferocious, relentless and vindictive PR operation.

"[C]onfronted by a public relations machine that will go feral if it doesn't get what it wants," writes Carr, "working reporters have been shaking their heads for years about the nightmare of dealing with Fox News."

The impetus for this long overdue calling-out of Fox's "scorched earth" tactics is, of course, the channel's grosser-than-gross hit job on two Times staffers last week. Briefly, the co-anchors of Fox & Friends ran uglified photos of Jacques Steinberg and Steven Reddicliffe and accused them of having an agenda (while fobbing off blame for that accusation on -- of course -- the blogs).

Carr traces such tactics all the way to the top, to Fox founder Roger Ailes, a former adviser to Richard Nixon. "At Fox News, media relations is a kind of rolling opposition research operation intended to keep reporters in line by feeding and sometimes maiming them," he writes. "Shooting the occasional messenger is baked right into the process."

Will Carr be that messenger next time? "Right now, there are advance copies circulating of a reported memoir I wrote about my times as a drug addict and drunk," he notes. "I've already been called a 'crack addict' on Bill O'Reilly's show, which at least has the virtue of being true, if a little vintage. Expect a return engagement with some added detail."

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