There was a little flare up between CNN anchor Rick Sanchez and Fox News recently. Serial Tweeter Sanchez shot off some tweets late last Friday night about a variety of topics, one of which was aimed at Fox News. Sanchez twatted (I assume 'twatted' is the past tense of 'tweet'),

do u know how much money i’d make if i’d sold out as hispanic and worked at fox news, r u kidding, one problem, looking in mirror

Fox News fired back through a spokesperson,

Everyone knows that Rick is an industry joke, he shows that he's a hack everyday. And he doesn't have to worry about working at FOX because we only hire talent who have the ability to generate ratings.

A couple of days ago I chastised the press for burying health care reform debate in favor of the comments President Obama made concerning Harvard Professor Henry Gates' arrest. I argued that the press compromises journalistic ethics for ratings.

Right on cue comes this quote from Fox News, "we only hire talent who have the ability to generate ratings."

If Fox News believes the ability to generate ratings is the most valuable quality in an anchor then Fox News needs drop the word "News" from their name. Perhaps they can replace it with "Talk".

If you want to be seen as a legitimate news source, hire anchors who will honestly portray stories without slant. Hire anchors who have the ability to handle the crisis of breaking news story. Hire individuals who have done some serious and thorough investigative journalism so that viewers will see authenticity behind the desk.

Since the birth of television, TV news has transformed from a public service to a profit generating juggernaut. When CBS gave Walter Cronkite the anchor desk, they did so because of his accomplishments as a journalist, not because he had a sensationalist demeanor that would generate ratings. Cronkite covered WWII battles in two continents, he flew with crews during bombing raids over Germany, he covered the Battle of the Bulge, the Nuremberg trials and served as reporter in Moscow. For 10 years he paid his dues at CBS before accumulating enough credibility and trust to be given the big desk.

Juxtapose Cronkite's career with a Fox News anchor. I'll just pick one out of a hat... how about... Glen Beck. Beck worked as a top 40 DJ, had massively successful talk radio program in Tampa which became syndicated nationally and anchored a 2 hour news opinion program on Headline News.

In short, Beck was widely successful at generating ratings, but lacked any real journalistic background. A perfect fit for Fox Talk.

Fox News has a history of Freudian slips. In 2005, London bureau chief for Fox News Scott Norvell accidently confessed his station's political bias. Couple that old revelation with this new one and you can make a strong argument that Fox News isn't accurately representing themselves when they refer to their content as "News".