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Is Fox News unfair to President Obama? This question came up during Part 2 of Fox News host Bill O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 interview of the president, broadcast Monday night on "The O鈥橰eilly Factor."

It happened soon after interviewer and interviewee finished a lengthy discussion about the roots of poverty in America. Mr. O鈥橰eilly wondered why Mr. Obama did not address the fact that 72 percent of African-American children are born out of wedlock, greatly increasing their chances of growing up poor. The president said he鈥檇 given at least 10 speeches on that issue and offered to send them to O鈥橰eilly, if he hadn鈥檛 seen them.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 interesting, when you look at what鈥檚 going on right now, you鈥檙e starting to see in a lot of white working-class homes, similar problems,鈥� said Obama. 鈥淲hen men can鈥檛 find good work ... whether they鈥檙e black, white, Hispanic, it doesn鈥檛 matter, then that puts pressure as well on the home.鈥�

Then, after a brief and inconclusive run through the issue of the Keystone XL pipeline, O鈥橰eilly abruptly shifted gears.

鈥淒o you think I鈥檓 unfair to you?鈥� he said.

鈥淎bsolutely. Of course you are, Bill. But I like you anyway,鈥� said Obama.

O鈥橰eilly didn鈥檛 let things drop. He asked for specific instances of unfairness. Obama was a bit taken aback but said that in Part 1 of their interview, broadcast Sunday prior to the Super Bowl, O鈥橰eilly had, in essence, asked if the administration was 鈥渨holly corrupt鈥� on the IRS targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status, the rollout of "Obamacare," and the investigation of the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a US ambassador.

These issues 鈥渁re defined by you guys in a certain way," said Obama, referring to Fox News as a whole.

Then, the president expanded things a bit, saying that any chief executive has to be ready to take a lot of criticism. He wondered what Fox would do after his term was over.

鈥淚鈥檝e been a big moneymaker for you,鈥� he said.

So was President Bill Clinton, of course, and so will ex-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, unless she declines to run. As O鈥橰eilly noted, Fox was doing pretty well in the ratings prior to Obama鈥檚 election. There鈥檚 every reason to believe its conservative take on the news will continue to draw ratings after 2012.

The answer to the fairness question depends on where you stand on the partisan spectrum, of course. To many Democrats, Fox asks questions about Obamacare, the IRS, and (especially) Benghazi that have been answered over and over again in many interviews and days of congressional hearings. To many Republicans, Fox is keeping alive issues the mainstream press just wants to drop or that it ignored in the first place.

Obama is saying that 鈥渘o one would care about four dead Americans in Benghazi and the incompetence that caused it if it weren鈥檛 for those darned kids at Fox News, or something,鈥�

But perhaps the deeper question is: Does this matter? More specifically, does the way Fox on the right and MSNBC on the left frames issues actually push voters to take more partisan positions?

Political science doesn鈥檛 have a settled answer to this question. But studies so far indicate that partisan news media are less a cause of America鈥檚 political polarization than a symptom of it.

鈥淧eople tune into partisan news because they are partisans. Even without partisan news media, these individuals would likely interpret the world through a partisan lens,鈥� writes Kevin Arceneaux, associate professor of political science and director of the Behavioral Foundations Lab at Temple University,

In one experiment, Mr. Arceneaux found that a CBS story on the IRS investigation of conservative groups was just as polarizing as Fox and MSNBC stories on the same subject. Republicans were as likely to call the IRS audits politically motivated after watching the CBS piece as they were after watching its Fox equivalent. For Democrats, the effect was the reverse: They were as likely to call the audits an innocent mistake after watching CBS as they were after watching the more pointed MSNBC story.

鈥淢any studies illustrate that people are capable of cherry-picking the facts they wish to believe from balanced presentations,鈥� writes Arceneaux.

There鈥檚 some evidence that polarized news media make already-polarized voters take more extreme positions. But one thing is sure: It鈥檚 a profitable business, especially for Fox. There鈥檚 no going back to the days when the dulcet tones of mainstream network anchors were the dominant voice of the American news conversation.

鈥淐riticism is criticism. It鈥檚 my job to give you a hard time,鈥� O鈥橰eilly told Obama at one point in their discussion.