Why, Yes, General Petraeus Does Look Natty in this Photo (Which Must Be Why the Washington Post Buried this Significant News Story in the Style Section)

On December 3 legendary reporter Bob Woodward disclosed that Rupert Murdoch (who, of course, owns a huge media empire and has come under suspicion for his organizations' illegal use of wiretaps, among other things) and Roger Ailes (president of Fox News and chair of Fox Television Stations), via their subordinate K.T. McFarland, asked David Petraeus (former US 4 star general and then head of operations in Afghanistan) to run for US President. Murdoch would finance the campaign, and Ailes would serve as the media adviser or chief of staff of the campaign. Petraeus refused. (N.B. I'd like to say "to his credit Petraeus refused," but he didn't refuse due to Murdoch's and Ailes's obvious conflicts of interest -- instead he said were he to ever run he'd take them up on their offers.)

A tape of the full recording is here; a transcript of the tape is here.
Although Woodward is a legendary Washington Post reporter and broke the Watergate scandal, among other things, the Post only published the article inside of its Style section. Let me repeat that: it published it inside its Style section. In its internet presence, the Style section is a subdivision of the Post' s Lifestyle section, and the article did not even get top billing in Style.  This has only come to light (at least enough light so someone with dim vision such as me) due to an editorial written in The Guardian by Carl Bernstein, another legendary Post reporter who broke the Watergate scandal with Woodward (a link I only saw due to Fark). It is offensive and incredible that the Post would bury this; Bernstein rails about that, and rightly so.

Putting the Post's irrepsonsible editorial policy to the side, though, the whole recording is worth listing to. In it the tightness of General Petraeus's relationship with Fox News is clear, and he repeatedly praises Ailes, who he calls a genius. K.T. McFarland also makes plain that Fox is biased in its reporting and deliberately sways its reporting to support Republican candidates. she offers, in fact, to have the headlines fixed to suit General Petraeus.

Since McFarland worked for Ronald Reagan and since Ailes worked for Republicans Nixon, Reagan, and G.H.W. Bush, Fox's bias -- which has long been evident -- should come as no surprise. Murdoch deliberately hired Republican party mouthpieces to present the news. What is new here is that McFarland comes out and admits it in black and white. And Petraeus seems fine with that.

Petraeus also complains about the liberalness of The New York Times -- specifically about a misleading headline and info that was wrongly put into a story by an editor. If an editor at the New York Times did deliberately put misinformation into a headline or story that editor should be fired. (Since bias seems to be a job prerequisite at Fox, however, maybe the editor could get a job there.) Petraeus offers no specifics, so I do not know about that story.