One of the strange things about the right-wing’s Mighty Media Wurlizter is that as it goes about misleading the public and throwing sand in everyone’s eyes, a certain percentage of the consumers of that media maintains their trust in the reporting. The lies are intended to influence the Hoi Polloi, but the elites are supposed to know better. And, then, someone like Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann comes along and actually believes what they read on World Net Daily or Michele Malkin’s blog. When this happens, it’s kind of embarrassing for everyone. The Stupid isn’t supposed to bleed out and infect actual elected officials.
There’s a world of difference between someone like Alan Keyes taking one for the team and allowing himself to look crazy so that he can lend credence to a theory (Birthers) that undermines confidence in and support for the president, and someone like Bachmann who doesn’t know that a game is being played.
There really isn’t anything that can be rightly called ‘right-wing journalism’ because all right-wing media outlets exist to produce misinformation. If there is a left-wing media bias, it’s that mainstream, non-ideological journalism has a bias in favor of reporting factual information. Right-wing outlets only care about facts in the rare instances when they align with their prime directive (serving the ‘haves’ at the expense of the ‘have-nots’).
There is nothing quite so sad as a politician who actually watches FOX News to learn something truthful.