Is this journalism?

One of the reasons that Fox news has done so well is that they've completely changed the landscape. Despite CNN's change to actually broadcast news for one hour a day (a CNN International feed), the 24 hour networks have all devolved to Fox style content, personality driven shows, and this bizarre left-right sporting event type show. These networks no longer broadcast real news, and I don't mean that in some hypercritical way, but that literally, they no longer broadcast facts.

There is truth out there, about Iraq for instance, that isn't getting reported. Fact, the US occupation has built a significant number of schools in the non-hotspot areas of the country. Fact, many Iraqis feel the security is so bad, that they won't let their children out of the house to play, not to mention, go to school. See, you just learned something, now wasn't that easy.

But, the 24 hour networks, I can't even call them news networks anymore, barely even hold to the pretense that they are reporting anymore.

Here's what set me off, from a transcript from "Hardball," Chris Matthews, MSNBC's top show.

MATTHEWS: Let me go, Paul, before you start. What I keep doing here is asking people on and off camera who come on this program, high-ranking officers, enlisted, former officers. I get sometimes, not all the time, two different versions, the version they give me on the air and the version they give me the minute when we‘re off the air.

The version they give me when we‘re on the air is gung-ho, we‘re doing the right thing, everything is moving along. The version they give me off the air is, Rumsfeld is crazy. There aren‘t enough troops over there. We‘re not taking this seriously enough, or, we shouldn‘t be there, sometimes.

Now, if he were actually in the news business, he might actually report the fact that he has people on his show that he knows are lying. But, then, that's not what his "news" show is about, is it?