That phrase makes me nostalgic for 2002 or 2003, because, let's face it, that's probably the last time people actually had that debate about Fox News. Clearly the question on the table today isn't whether Fox News is “fair and balanced.” (Almost nobody thinks it is.) It's whether Fox News still even resembles a legitimate news organization. (Hint: It does not.)

But that doesn't stop Robert Lichter from the Center for Media and Public Affairs, who argues in Forbes that Fox News is really, really fair and balanced, specifically when it comes to the channel's coverage of Obama. Not surprisingly there are all sorts of problems with Lichter's pitch. The first rather obvious hurdle is that Lichter spends a lot of time dissecting Fox News' 2008 treatment of Obama. Lichter claims Fox News is fair and balanced today based on how it covered Obama 12 months ago.

I don't mean to be a stickler here, but the latest debate sparked by the White House is that in 2009 Fox News no longer functions as a legitimate news organization. And that in 2009 Fox News has basically cut the chord with traditional journalism. So I'm just not sure about the usefulnesses of Lichter's commentary since he spends a lot of it looking back on 2008.

That's actually only the first glaring problem in Lichter's piece. The second? To prove Fox News was “fair and balanced” to Obama in 2008, Lichter notes the results of an on-going Center for Media and Public Affairs study which monitors political news coverage on TV. As part of the study, CMPA monitors the first 30 minutes of Fox News' nightly Special Report. And that's it. Yet from that tiny, almost laughably small 30-minute daily sample, Lichter draws sweeping conclusions about whether a 24-hour news channel is “fair and balanced”? That's almost too silly for words. Lichter makes conclusions about Fox News while ignoring more than 90 percent of its programming day?

More? Sadly, there is. In his Forbes piece, Lichter actually concedes that even judging Fox News from just that 30- minute chunk of Special Report last year, the channel delivered more negative coverage of the Democratic candidate than did the nightly newscasts for ABC, CBS, and NBC. In fact, on Fox News last year, 64 percent of Special Report's evaluations of Obama were unfavorable. But somehow Fox News was “fair and balanced” in 2008?

More? Yep. Lichter eventually addresses how “fair and balanced” Fox News has treated Obama in 2009, at least according to CMPA. The conclusion? [Emphasis added]

It turns out that Fox's coverage of President Obama has been even more negative than its coverage of candidate Obama: From Inauguration Day to Oct. 10, only 27% of Special Report's comments on the president were favorable

I'm not making this up. Lichter claims Fox News has been fair to Obama, yet concedes that on one of Fox News' few remaining 'straight' news program, the commentary has been overwhelmingly negative toward the president this year, just as it was toward Obama in 2008.

Safe to say, Lichter's attempt to exonerate Fox News is lacking. But hey, at least the guys at Newsbusters like it.