MSNBC "leaning left" ?

Today in the Washington Post, there was an article in the style section called "MSNBC, Leaning Left and Getting Flak from Both Sides" Here's a taste of some of the criticism from Republicans in the article:

" 'It's an organ of the Democratic National Committee,' says Steve Schmidt, a senior strategist for John McCain's campaign. 'It's a partisan advocacy organization that exists for the purpose of attacking John McCain.'

Ed Gillespie, President Bush's counselor, says there is an 'increasing blurring' of the line between NBC News and MSNBC's 'blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann.' "

9 days days earlier, the same charge came out of Fox News on "The O'Reilly Factor." Laura Ingraham, the guest host, said that at NBC "there is no line between news and commentary. It’s all blurred." Karl Rove, during that same episode, added that “journalistic standards of MSNBC, which are really no standards at all,” are now “creep[ing] into NBC.” Its interesting that Rove , a political analyst for Fox News, would say that considering his network has covered up the fact that he also has been an informal advisor and avid supporter of the McCain campaign.

Moreover, Fox News appears to fighting back against MSNBC and the criticisms of its news commentator Keith Olbermann against Fox News. According to the Washington Post, Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News "warned that if Olbermann didn't stop such attacks against Fox, he would unleash O'Reilly against NBC and would use the New York Post as well." I guess its hard to be anything left of Fox News without receiving criticism these days. Olbermann is one of the few news commentators that openly criticizes not only the Bush Administration but Fox News and politicians like Hilary Clinton for her statement about the possibility of Obama being assasinated like Robert Kennedy in justification for continuing her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But the Clinton campaign also criticized MSNBC as the article points out: " Terry McAuliffe, chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign, says Matthews has been 'in the tank' for Barack Obama 'from Day One' and is practically 'the Obama campaign chair.' " If anything McCain has gotten the easiest treatment from the mass media. On all the news networks, McCain is regularly casted as a "maverick" despite the fact that, according to a recent CQ analysis, he's voted 100 percent of the time in 2008 in the Senate with same position as President Bush.