A Treated Symptom

The flip side to reporter Michael Aron and news anchor Jim Hooker losing their jobs at NJN in a real-life imitation of the last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is the fact that Glenn Beck signed off at Fox News for the long-awaited last time on the same day, June 30. (Like Aron and Hooker, Beck didn't get to finish the week. But no one could take one more day of Beck. I couldn't even take one more minute.)

Beck's departure was due to the fact that liberal activist groups banded together against his racist, McCarthyistic, ultra-paranoid banter and got over three hundred advertisers to drop him. He proved to be too much of a financial liability to Fox News to stay on the air.

Beck was a symptom, though. The disease goes merrily on. Sean Hannity, the noted Long Island Irish Nazi, will continue to denigrate liberals and question their patriotism, while rhymes-with-glass-poles like Eric Bolling go on dismissing President Obama in racial terms. Though, to be fair, I haven't heard anyone on Fox call Obama a dick yet, as happened on MSNBC when Mark Halperin assessed the President's performance in his most recent news conference (more on that later).

No matter. Because as long as Fox News is on the air, it will remain a broadcaster of hate and divisiveness, and a voice for the rich and powerful.

We have to keep calling them out. Jon Stewart is only one man. He can't do it alone.