In a sense, Fox News Channel has never been able to overcome its nature as the offspring of Ailes, notoriously one of the angriest, toughest Republican consultants in politics, and Rupert Murdoch, the ruthless mogul whose political abuse of his news outlets became legendary long before he entered the cable news business. The objective for Ailes, as for Murdoch, is not fairness or balance; the objective is always to win by whatever means necessary. That includes marketing himself and his employees as high-minded truth-seekers and innocent victims of snotty liberalism -- much in the mode of old Nixon.

The list of similar offenses is almost endless and, as it grows every day, selecting the most egregious examples can be challenging. Back in 2004, the wife of Carl Cameron, the channel's top campaign reporter, worked in the Bush reelection campaign, and Cameron himself posted material mocking Democratic nominee John Kerry. Over the years, the channel's news director John Moody has sent d