Where we are today

I've been away for a while, not paying extremely close attention to politics. Every once in a while I just need to take some time off from this stuff. But I came up with a little game: which passage is from Fox News and which is from the AP? Here are their two main items on health care.

Here's item one:

Starting over on health care, President Barack Obama knows his chances aren't looking much more promising. A year after he called for a far-reaching overhaul, Obama unveiled his most detailed plan yet on Monday. Realistically, he's just hoping to win a big enough slice to silence the talk of a failing presidency.

The 10-year, $1 trillion plan, like the current Democratic version in the Senate, would bring health insurance to more than 31 million Americans who now lack it. Government insurance wouldn't be included, a problem for Democratic progressives. Republicans are skeptical about where the money would come from — and about Obama's claim that the plan wouldn't raise the federal deficit.

Here's item two:

The White House issued proposals Monday for health care reform that have won kudos from several Democratic lawmakers, a sure sign, say Republicans, of how little GOP input is in the plan.

Republicans have agreed to show up at the White House Thursday for a summit on health care, but are heading there with a dim view of the outcome.

Hmm...it's interesting. Item #1 sounds embarrassingly opinionated and antagonistic, with plenty of weaselly turns of phrase and elision of simple facts that it makes it seem more like a hacky rightist op-ed than a real news story. By comparison, the second item seems positively journalistic by comparison. So, which is which? The answer, of course, is that item #1 is the AP (and item #2 is Fox). Evidently not even Fox News is that embarrassing.