Former New York Times editor Bill Keller has written an op-ed column focused on Fox News Channel. Keller notes that it is a financial juggernaut for News Corp. and discusses a pair of Roger Ailes and Fox News biographies, one written without FNC’s consent by journalist Gabriel Sherman, and another by Ailes himself (along with a co-author).

The issue Keller takes is not financial, but rather with how the network represents itself, and facts. That, he says, is Rupert Murdoch‘s “most toxic legacy”:

I doubt that people at Fox News really believe their programming is “fair and balanced” — that’s just a slogan for the suckers — but they probably are convinced that what they have created is the conservative counterweight to a media elite long marinated in liberal bias. They believe that they are doing exactly what other serious news organizations do; they just do it for an audience that had been left out before Fox came along.

Read more

Bill Keller, who announced yesterday that he’s stepping down later this summer as Executive Editor of The New York Times, got a mouthful from Fox News anchor Shepard Smith.

Smith, the guest speaker at a New York Press Club event last week, was asked by moderator, WCBS Radio’s Rich Lamb about Keller’s criticism of Fox News. Smith, once again, drew a distinction between the news he reports and the kind of talk FNC’s opinion hosts engage in.

Rich Lamb: “A few months ago in this very room – you might have heard about it – NY Times executive editor, Bill Keller, had a few choice remarks about FOX News Channel. I don’t know if you heard these quotes, but as Keller put it on March 3rd, I think if you’re a regular viewer of Fox News, you’re among the ‘most cynical people on planet earth. I cannot think of a more cynical slogan than ‘Fair and Balanced’”. I want to get your personal reaction to that:

Shepard Smith: “My goal and the goal of every journalist I know every day of your life is to be fair and to be balanced and to bring context and perspective. And if Bill Keller doesn’t think I’m not succeeding on a daily basis, he has my phone number. I don’t enjoy being insulted by people who talk in generalities. My guess is that the

Read more

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller had a few words about Fox News Channel and its regular viewers last night.

As The Cutline’s Joe Pompeo reports, Keller was asked a wide range of questions at a New York Press Club event, ranging from the Times’ upcoming paywall, the departure of Frank Rich, and yes, FNC:

“I think if you’re a regular viewer of Fox News, you’re among the most cynical people on planet Earth,” Keller snarled. “I cannot think of a more cynical slogan than ‘Fair and Balanced’ “

Today on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu we’ll discuss Bill Keller‘s trip to Iran (and his reaction to those who have reacted with surprise) and Conan O’Brien on The Tonight Show — how are the ratings?

As always on Friday, we’ll have “What We Learned This Week” — only this time, it’s “What We Learned Over The Last Six Months.”

See…it’s my last podcast. We’ll take a look back at some past moments, including our highest profile shout-out (Thanks, Rush Limbaugh!).

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321. And tune in Monday and beyond, with GalleyCat editor Jason Boog at the helm.

Click here to receive mediabistro.com’s Daily Newsfeed via email.

Politico’s Tim Grieve reports on some comments New York Times executive editor Bill Keller made about modern day media, including CNN. Keller spoke at the opening of a new building for The Stanford Daily – an event said was a little like a “ribbon-cutting” for “a new Pontiac dealership.”

Keller said it’s hard to remember that the letters stand for Cable News Network when reporting is replaced by “juries of commentators” behind laptops on a set that looks like “a parody of a ‘Daily Show’ parody” of a news set.

As the John Edwards affair story continues to sink in, it’s time for some mainstream media self-reflection.

The New York Times’ Richard Perez-Pena and Bill Carter look at why there was a, “reticence of the mainstream media,” in covering the story.

After noting MSNBC only touched on the story by way of a David Letterman clip and CNN did not mention the story once (well, that information sounds familiar), CNN political director Sam Feist weighs in. He says CNN, “had been working the story since it first broke in The Enquirer late last year,” but, “You have to have some sort of evidence before you put something on the air.”

The Times looks inward as well, and echoes a sentiment brought up throughout the article: “Bill Keller, the executive editor, said in an e-mail message that Mr. Edwards’s dark-horse status and the ‘added hold-your-nose quality about The Enquirer’ contributed to the lack of interest by The Times and the mainstream media generally.”