Some clinicians consider this delusion -- that Americans can get their news from only one part of the political spectrum -- the gravest of all.

I know Krauthammer is being glib, but sadly, I fear its true. I live in a pretty conservative little ville and I have had several people tell me outright that they only watch or read Fox. When I mention CNN, it is the "liberal" news. And sadly, they seem to really believe this.

Having come to this realization, I started reading both, and there is a difference. Emphasis, word choices are very important in delivering news and its very clear that there are real differences between all the news organizations but Fox & CNN especially.

So, as an exercise for the class, sit down & read both sites' headlines on issues for a few days. See what your conclusions are. Then ask yourself what kind of opinion would be formed by reading the same story on one or the other site. And then ask yourself what the opinion of that reader would be if he didn't read his news critically. If anyone's interested, I'll post my conclusions.

I have no doubt you can find cadres of persons who only watch Fox, or CNN, or whatever (I have a colleague who never watches Fox, for example), but the numbers bear out Krathammer's claim--it is clear, by looking at the ratings, that Fox is hardly the only news source for most Americans.

But the fact that I can find cadres of persons who only watch Fox or CNN says something about how we as people think about issues. Especially when you factor in how any organization delivers a piece of news.

The syndromes Krauthammer mentions are just as rampant on the other side. How many irrational syndromes plague Hillary Clinton or how many will plague Dean if he gets elected? A lot.

I'm not sure which numbers link you're referring go Stephen, but I'd like to see a study of how many people try to get news from multiple sources on the same issue. I'd say far fewer.

Whoops - that should be Steven, not Stephen.

All I was referring to were ratings: from the ratings it is clear that Fox News isn't the only news source for most people, as most people clearly do not watch Fox News, even amongst consuers of the news.

And you make a point, but the issue that K is getting at is there is something a mania going on right now amongst some on the Left who are rather paranoid about Murdoch and Fox News--just go back and read the transcripts when Murdoch testified to the Senate, or the general rhetoric that was flying around concerning the FCC's rule change on media ownership. There was a great deal of very Fox News-specific hand-wringing.

I wonder if it got reported on Fox News :)