““But I thought you were a conservative?’ ¶ ‘I am, I guess,’ she said. ‘But I also have eyes and ears.’ ¶ And that’s when it hit me. ¶ No one believed it. ¶ Fair and Balanced. We Report, You Decide. Everyone knew it was bunk. A sham. Over the next eight years at Fox, I never met a single employee, not the truest of true believers, who wasn’t cynical about what our main purpose was. ¶ ‘We all know the “Fair and Balanced” thing is bullshit,’ a very conservative O’Reilly Factor producer told me once, late at night, after we’d had a few drinks. ‘We’re not here to be fair. We’re here to give red meat to our viewers.’ ¶ ‘To stir up the crazies, you mean,’ I said. ¶ He laughed. ‘Yeah, to stir up the crazies. Because outrage equals ratings.””
