NYT's Jensen Finds Another Left-Wing Hero to Gush Over: Sally Kohn of FoxNews.com Fame

New York Times media reporter Elizabeth Jensen has previously praised the "thoughtful interviews" of hard-left public television fixture Bill Moyers. Now she turns to Sally Kohn, who has became a left-wing heroine for venturing into the "devil's den" that is Fox News, in a Monday Business Day profile, "At Fox News, a Liberal Pundit Finds the Spotlight."

Kohn is best known for her criticism of the vice presidential debate posted at FoxNews.com, in which many misguided commentators seemed to think she was an honest conservative offering an objective analysis of Ryan's "deceiving" performance, as opposed to being a resident liberal.

Sally Kohn is a former community organizer who prefers baggy clothes and doesn’t own a television. She, her partner and their 4-year-old daughter live in the liberal bastion of Park Slope in Brooklyn, and she recently proudly posted on Twitter her new status as “co-squad leader at the Park Slope Food Coop.” Absolutely nothing about her screams obvious contributor to the Fox News Channel.

But for the last year, Ms. Kohn has been making a name for herself in the crowded arena of political punditry, having made her way into the business at Fox News, the country’s highest-rated news channel, and a favorite destination for conservative viewers.

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In August, Ms. Kohn, who also writes for Salon.com and posts on Twitter constantly, won national attention with her Foxnews.com critique of the vice-presidential candidate’s Republican National Convention speech, with the innocuous headline “Paul Ryan’s speech in 3 words.” (Those were “dazzling,” “deceiving” and “distracting” and the commentary called the speech “an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.”)

Although Fox News never put Ms. Kohn on the air to discuss the post, the viral phenomenon collected 2.1 million unique hits, putting it among the site’s top five original posts for the year

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In December 2011, after sending the Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, an e-mail, she was signed to a paid contributor contract.

The move raised eyebrows among some on the left, but Adam Mason, the state policy director for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, called it a courageous move similar to organizing. “You don’t see many pundits going right into the devil’s den,” he said, referring to Fox News. “You’re really putting yourself out there in front of a lot of people that really don’t want to hear what you want to say.”