Okay, so just as we've witnessed this past decade, "fairness" doesn't mean attacking "both sides" if only one side has a problem or scandal. In other words, if the Republicans are self-destructing in a fit of lobbyist cash and KY, mentioning a non-sequitur Democrat who was caught with some cash in his fridge isn't "fairness", it's pandering to the Republicans and anyone with a pitchfork who's tilting at windmills about "liberal media bias".
When Tim Russert attacked Senator Obama on the Farrakhan endorsement, it was clearly motivated out of a self-conscious need for balance, based on the perception that MSNBC is in the bag for Obama. Yet that didn't make it fair -- it turned the debate into an awful, awful embarrassment.
Nevertheless, Senator Obama handled Russert -- as well as Senator Clinton's follow-up -- smartly. At least as smartly as he could considering the ridiculousness of it all. Say nothing of Russert circumspectly coupling the senator with Farrakhan -- something which hillbillies like Congressman Kingston might inaccurately repeat as the truth.
Or, as Josh Marshall wrote today:
As a Jew and perhaps more importantly simply as a sentient being I found it disgusting. It was a nationwide, televised, MSM version of one of those noxious Obama smear emails.
UPDATE: I watched the video again at TPM and noticed something striking. To me at least. At the very end, during Senator Obama's "reject and denounce" response... he looked and behaved like a president.