My colleague Eric Black decided to further depress liberals today by forwarding a widely disseminated poll showing Fox "the most trusted name in news."

Of particular menace to the left was Eric's observation that "for the all-important self-identified independents (who made up 29 percent of the full sample), they don't trust anyone, but they distrust Fox less than any of the others."

That's one way to look at it. But another way is to pick a different set of crosstabs — ones that look at self-identified liberals, moderates and conservatives. You can probably guess how liberals and conservatives swing. Here's the crosstab for moderates (trust/don't trust):

• CNN: 47/31
• NBC: 44/33
• CBS: 41/33
• ABC: 39/34
• FOX: 33/48

This shows a few things: First, a lot of conservatives are camping out as independents at the moment. Second, conservatives (39 percent of the survey) are the only ideological group who, on balance, trust Fox — liberals (14 percent of the survey) and moderates (the biggest group, 47 percent) don't. I'd take a page from the conservative playbook and say that reflects common sense.

Third — and this is really the bottom line — the Fox "win" is all about intensity. There's an old expression regarding candidates that "conservatives fall in line while liberals fall in love." As Eric and others have alluded to, Fox wins because conservatives overwhelmingly trust it (75/13) while liberals and moderates are much more ... well, moderate when it comes to buying what the networks sell. (As they should be, I'd assert.)

As any pro can tell you, intensity matters in politics — it's all about turnout. That may be a huge reason Republicans win in the fall; they're energized. But it doesn't necessarily mean that a majority of Americans agree.