While I agree that news being delivered in a dry, pretentious manner gets old fast and doesn't serve it's viewership. The same could be said of the polar opposite (Naked News anyone?).
I'm not familiar with Fox. I also don't watch CNBC, BBC, ABC, CBS or NBC as my main source for televised news so I will refrain from commenting on the quality of their material. I'm Canadian and as such I have access to a great Publicly owned network called the CBC. They have great National news content (
The National), do a good job of presenting a Coast to Coast view of the issues and make a concerted effort to remain unaffiliated to any one Political Party.
I really enjoy watching the news and reading the newspaper (
Toronto Star), but I also don't rely exclusively on either of them to get the whole story. When there's an issue that I feel strongly about and that I find I need to know more about I research the topic.
What I'm getting at I guess is that the media /
medium can't (or at least shouldn't) be the sole method of educating one's self on how our deepest opinions are formed.
Oh, and the four clowns who caused the uproar...? asshats (IMO of course
).