One of the more annoying aspects of the MSNBC-Fox News cable news wars is the inability of its participants to acknowledge their respective partisan leanings. That's why it was a breath of fresh air when MSNBC president Phil Griffin acknowledged during an interview with Mediaite that his network leaned left. "We come from a progressive stance," he said. "Our audience has a progressive point of view." Now was that so hard? Comparatively, it's always been much harder for Griffin's employees and adversaries to admit as much.

Bill O'Reilly Sure, The O'Reilly Factor host is not as conservative as his colleagues Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck. But Papa Bear's running gag that "I'm not a conservative. I'm an independent" got old years ago. You see, O'Reilly prefers the term "traditionalist" which is simply an exercise in re-branding.

Contessa Brewer "No, but we're not liberal," said the MSNBC host in an interview on The Mark Reardon Show in 2009. "No, we're not liberal. We're not liberal. That's crazy--that's crazy talk.... I think if that's the perception, it's based on people who don't watch more than a segment or two at a time."

Roger Ailes The network that coined the phrase "Fair and Balanced" has a CEO and chairman who's appropriately delusional, as a profile in Esquire argued:

He really believes that he is the only genuine person in the media business. He really believes that Fox is fair and balanced. He really believes that his success has very little to do with politics and very much to do with television... He really believes that he seeks out liberal voices as ardently as he seeks out conservative ones.

Rachel Maddow  Admirably, Maddow has no problem admitting that she's liberal. But it's moments like her confrontation with Jon Stewart last year, where she refused to concede that MSNBC is playing a similar role as Fox is on the left, that get her into trouble:

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at jhudson at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
John Hudson