Today, no sane person takes what she reads/watches in the media on face value. Journalism as a profession has lost much of it's respect and credibility in my lifetime. Most news papers, TV/radio stations and online properties have some agenda or the other and they act according to that, openly and shamelessly, truth be damned (liberal, conservative, religious, left, right...whatever).
But even for them, attacking a very distinguished journalist's character, instead of analyzing his work on it's merit is new low.
Actually i see a lot of people who believe their chosen media with all the agenda that involves. You can call them not sane, but they're out there. Whether it's fox or something more or less extremist than that, they just don't want to analyse on their own.
They may be uneducated or gullible or lacking the will to question preprocessed information... But likely sane.
But even for them, attacking a very distinguished journalist's character, instead of analyzing his work on it's merit is new low.