the conspiracy theories of rabid partisans  February 16, 2012  A
big story by Politico asserts that the famously archconservative
Fox News is moving to the political center, probably to attract
a younger and less partisan audience the share of which it saw
slipping in the ratings. And it does make sense that a company
would want to make their product more marketable because once
you’re essentially an unabashed cheerleader for a partisan
cause, only other devoted partisans will watch what you have to
offer. Likewise, giving $1 million to a political party from the
entire organization would not engender your credibility as a
news source, much like a referee publicly making plans to go for
a drink with players from one team after the game is over would
not instill viewers with confidence about the objectivity of his
calls on a playing field. But a move towards greater objectivity
is making lots of partisan zealots very unhappy and they’ve
resorted to full blown conspiracy theories to describe why Fox
would ever