Everyone knows that the FOX news channel is basically run as if it were an arm of the Republican Party, but it's rare to get an inside peek that demonstrates the extent to which this is true. After the debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards, the Bush campaign sent out a "talking points" email that almost immediately came up in FOX reporting.

The New Republic quotes the email:

TO: BC'04 Surrogates
FROM: BC'04 Communication
RE: Talking Points

We will be sending more talking points later this evening, but the decisive line by Vice President Cheney during the debate was the following:

"So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote, and they voted against the troops. Now, if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to standup to Al Qaeda?"

Someone goofed and sent the email to more than just the "BC'04 Surrogates" list. Here's what happened on FOX:

Bill Kristol just told his Fox News audience that Cheney's line about Dean was the best line of the night. A minute later on the same program Rich Lowry said, "And Bill is absolutely right about that Howard Dean line, which I thought was devastating." Talk about message discipline.

So, at least a few people in the FOX newsroom — if not the entire newsroom — appear to be official "Bush/Cheney '04 Surrogates" who are sent special "Talking Points" from the official Bush/Cheney campaign organization which they dutifully report/repeat over the course of "news" broadcasts.

Very interesting...

Read More:

• 2004 Elections
• Election Polls
• George W. Bush
• John Kerry
• War on Terrorism