Is Howell Raines right about Fox News?

The former executive editor of The New York Times penned a column Sunday for The Washington Post in which he criticized the News Corp. channel for biased reporting, and also took a swipe at other news outlets for allowing Fox's efforts to go unnoticed.

“Through clever use of the Fox News Channel and its cadre of raucous commentators, [Roger] Ailes has overturned standards of fairness and objectivity that have guided American print and broadcast journalists since World War II. Yet, many members of my profession seem to stand by in silence as Ailes tears up the rulebook that served this country well as we covered the major stories of the past three generations, from the civil rights revolution to Watergate to the Wall Street scandals,” Raines writes. “This is not a liberal-versus-conservative issue. It is a matter of Fox turning reality on its head with, among other tactics, its endless repetition of its uber-lie: 'The American people do not want health-care reform.'”

Does Raines have a point? Maybe.

We asked a handful of television critics and journalism observers what they thought of Raines' argument. The answers might surprise you.

“I think he's mostly right,” said Bill Mitchell, a top instructor at The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., one of the prominent media studies organizations in the nation. “I think a lot of liberals in the media cut Fox too much slack. Howell is right to call Fox out for its agenda just as Fox is right to call others out on theirs.”

He adds, “Howell clearly has a point. Fox is more to the right than other media is to the left. It is important to stand up for independent journalistic principles.”

Eric Deggans, a prominent media critic with the St. Petersburg Times, agreed. He said many writers, including himself, have noted its political stance.

“I think Howell makes a lot of great points in that piece and we should be looking at what Fox does more,” Deggans said. “I have often written that Fox News is a right-leaning cable news channel. That they tend to take a political position in much of what they do.”

Fox News officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Phil Rosenthal, a top media critic at the Chicago Tribune, says some people overestimate Fox's influence, while he adds that their political leaning is known: “The channel itself has marked itself with an identity giving it a point of view. I am not sure Fox News cares. I don't think it's that big of an audience.”

William Marimow, editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and former editor of The Baltimore Sun, said he does not watch Fox much. But he said more scrutiny is always better. “A healthy scrutiny is good for all media,” he said. “I don't think Fox should be singled out, but they should all be critiqued.”