Being a tough journalist doesn't mean being an asshole

Playing on the same level as "the boys" is sometimes difficult for female journalists. I get it. The appearance of gravitas (not the gravitas itself) comes harder for female journalists.

But being a tough journalist doesn't mean being an asshole. There's a line there and it's not small and it's not hard to miss, as Fox's Megyn Kelly shows.

Obama's camp has been pushing back against Fox News and rightly so. No one can say that MSNBC's evening line-up isn't liberal. But the accusation can't be made that they're ginning up the news. Fox took a line about "spreading the wealth" - which describes a tax cut for 95% of America - and turned it into a Marxist-Leninist manifesto designed to scare "Joe the Plumber" and "Mary the Fat, Dumb Housewife".

Obama spokesman Bill Burton went on Fox to defend a statement he put out calling the questions over Obama's "socialist tendencies" a fake news item pushed by Fox. And what he got was a face full of fired-up asshole.