Pat Cassidy moved from WBBM radio to WLS, both AM, after 31 years of straight news reporting, now may be returning to the latter, again at WBBM, where he will have to “relearn how to keep his opinions to himself,” per Lewis Lazare, Sun-Times media columnist.

Indeed.  I see the man or woman in the middle at Fox News, when the evening panel expatiates — almost always with C. Krauthammer on the right (appropriately, though he has had no use for S. Palin) and most often with the also well-informed Steve Hayes of Weekly Standard on the left (inappropriately).  This middle talker is often a news-teller and is often unwilling to call the spade by its proper name.

Mort Kondracke of Roll Call is painfully unwilling, forced lately into a defensive mode largely because of Krauthammer, so is A.B. Stoddard of The Hill, though she is a columnist.  Juan Williams of NPR is painfully willing, but that’s another story.  Mara Liasson, also of NPR, is blithely willing but almost always several degrees off the main point and rarely veers from realpolitik.  Always the horse-picker, she seems surprised that any judgement of right and wrong is in order.

That said, it’s good to see Lazare, an old hand at columnizing about how things work in media, putting the distinction into so many words: the newscaster or reporter is supposed to keep opinions to himself.  Indeed, Cassidy was a fish out of water in his recent talk-show stint, paired with the appropriately named Erich “Mancow” Muller, who gives new meaning to the word “excited.”

And happy birthday to Abe Lincoln.  Thank God for log cabins!