I tweaked Ambinder earlier in the week for what I thought was his naive take on the conservative movement's attack culture (i.e. Fox News does not function as the Opposition Party.) So to be fair I'll give him credit for, in part, now acknowledging Fox News' central role. But more importantly, for noting an inescapable truth: The anti-reason, right-wing media conversation in this country has gone completely bonkers.

Or “mad,” as Ambinder suggests.

From Ambinder at The Atlantic [emphasis added]:

It is absolutely a condition of the age of the triumph of conservative personality politics, where entertainers shouting slogans are taken seriously as political actors, and where the incentive structures exist to stomp on dissent and nuance, causing experimental voices to retrench and allowing a lot of people to pretend that the world around them is not changing. The obsession with ACORN, Climategate, death panels, the militarization of rhetoric, Saul Alinsky, Chicago-style politics, that TAXPAYERS will fund the bailout of banks -- these aren't meaningful or interesting or even relevant things to focus on. (The banks will fund their own bailouts.)

There's much, much more that needs to said --by the Beltway press

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about this topic. But Ambinder's contribution is a good start.