If you've been reading about Fox News's phony Kerry "I do manicures" story, which Josh Marshall and others have been discussing for a couple of days, you've probably seen the New York Times story about Fox's retraction. But that's not nearly as satisfying as what I saw all along my route to work today: copies of Newsday's free NYC paper amNewYork with this on the cover:

Is FOX faux real?

Fox News bared its right-wing bias in two blunders this weekend, adding to the argument that the media outlet is a Republican attack dog against Democratic candidates.

On Friday, the cable news channel's chief campaign correspondent Carl Cameron wrote a bogus news article that was posted on Fox's Web site that quoted Sen John Kerry bragging that he was a "metrosexual."

The fake article quoted Kerry as saying, "Women should like me! I do manicures."

"Why would you be doing this if you were a 'fair and balanced' reporter?" aked Joan Deppa, a professor and media ethicist at Syracuse University. "To what extent was his [Cameron's] behavior a reflection of the climate in which he works?" ...

The amNewYork story, unlike the Times story, also cites the Fox article by Jane Roh that, in its original version, published pro-Kerry statements by members of "Communists for Kerry" while failing to acknowledge that "Communists for Kerry" is a Republican prank. As amNewYork notes:

Roh claimed that she was fooled by "Communists for Kerry."

But Deppa said that even if her excuse is true, being so ready to believe the pranksters could be a sign of Roh's own biases.

Indeed.

amNewYork isn't a major player in New York media -- it's a fluffy giveaway paper -- but a lot of people pick it up as a quick subway read. Nice to know that this will be a lot of people's first read of the day.