Consider another media critic convinced.
Gabriel Sherman, a contributing editor at New York magazine who has spent many a word on Fox News, wrote a post for the magazine's Daily Intel blog Monday suggesting Fox has adopted a "new strategy" for 2012.
"Fox is trying to credibly capture the center without alienating its loyal core of rabid viewers. To this end, the network is flexing its news-gathering muscles in high-profile ways that will capture media attention," Sherman wrote.
Sherman is not the first media critic to make this claim. Howard Kurtz did so back in September after talking with network chairman Roger Ailes, and observing a Fox News debate in Orlando.
Kurtz wrote that Ailes has a series of anchors and correspondents -- like Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly -- who would fit in at any news network with their credentials and willingness to ask tough questions.
Sherman too sees the news side of Fox adopting a more pugnacious approach with the GOP candidates. While the prime time hosts continue to operate in their own universe, Baier conducted a widely praised interview with Mitt Romney, Wallace has peppered Michele Bachmann and the entire field was subject to a roaming New York Times reporter at Saturday's "candidates forum."
The New York Times? That bastion of liberalism and bias?
Like Kurtz, Sherman remains skeptical, particularly since he does not see this shift as a case of old-fashioned media objectivity. It's just another way of benefiting
Fox.
"2012 is shaping up to be the year that Ailes decided Fox will benefit if the political world recognizes that his network is willing to make GOP candidates sweat in front of their base. Like any good candidate, the network plans to tack toward the center for the general election," he wrote.
Sherman's language suggests his opinion of the network has not changed since May, when he wrote about Fox as if it were a political organization as much as a media network - something MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has seized on in calling the GOP race the "Murdoch primary."
Yet whatever Fox's motives, this marks another prominent Fox critic noting a more moderate shift for the network.
"The GOP primary candidates may think Fox News studios are friendly territory. But while it will continue to function as home turf, especially in the prime time hours, they shouldn't be surprised to see more curveballs," Sherman wrote.
With another Fox debate less than two weeks away, we'll all have another chance to scrutinize.
