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| O's Administration Tackles the REAL Enemy...Fox News | ||
| 2009-10-20 | ||
| I guess Beck's outing of Anita "Lizard Lips" Dunn stung more than we thought... The White House is calling on other news organizations to isolate and alienate Fox News as it sends out top advisers to rail against the cable channel as a Republican Party mouthpiece. If only they could take such quick, decisive action against our external enemies like Imanutjob and the Taliban...
But several top White House officials have taken aim at Fox News since communications director Anita Dunn branded Fox "opinion journalism masquerading as news" in an interview last Sunday. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN on Sunday that President Obama does not want "the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox." Well, yeah, but it's so much easier to follow the NY Slimes' lead and hire someone to watch Fox and report back instead of, you know, digging up your own leads... Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is "not a news organization." "Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way," Axelrod counseled ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "We're not going to treat them that way." Asked Monday about another Axelrod claim that Fox News is just trying to make money, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that while all media companies fall under that description, "I would say sometimes programming can be tilted toward accentuating those profits."
That would be the nuclear option ... The White House stopped providing guests to "Fox News Sunday" after host Chris Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August. Gawd forbid a reporter would ever check sources ... Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was "something I've never seen a Sunday show do." "How DARE you verify our official talking points, peasant!!" She's got a point, the Sunday shows are for propaganda ... "She criticized 'Fox News Sunday' last week for fact-checking -- fact-checking -- an administration official," Wallace said Sunday. "They didn't say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check...Let's fact-check Anita Dunn, because last Sunday she said that Fox ignores Republican scandals, and she specifically mentioned the scandal involving Nevada senator John Ensign," Wallace added. "A number of Fox News shows have run stories about Senator Ensign. Anita Dunn's facts were just plain wrong." Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente said: "Surprisingly, the White House continues to declare war on a news organization instead of focusing on the critical issues that Americans are concerned about like jobs, health care and two wars. The door remains open and we welcome a discussion about the facts behind the issues." Observers on both sides of the political aisle questioned the White House's decision to continue waging war on a news organization, saying the move carried significant political risks. Democratic strategist Donna Brazile said on CNN: "I don't always agree with the White House. And on this one here I would disagree." David Gergen, who has worked for Democratic and Republican presidents, said: "I totally agree with Donna Brazile." Gergen added that White House officials have "gotten themselves into a fight they don't necessarily want to be in. I don't think it's in their best interest." "The faster they can get this behind them, the more they can treat Fox like one other organization, the easier they can get back to governing, and then put some people out on Fox," Gergen said on CNN. "I mean, for goodness sakes, you know, you engage in the debate. "What Americans want is a robust competition of ideas, and they ought to be willing to go out there and mix it up with some strong conservatives on Fox, just as there are strong conservatives on CNN like Bill Bennett." Bennett expressed outrage that Dunn told an audience of high school students this year that Mao Zedong, the founder of communist China, was one of "my favorite political philosophers." "Having the spokesman do this, attack Fox, who says that Mao Zedong is one of the most influential figures in her life, was not...a small thing; it's a big thing," Bennett said on CNN. "When she stands up, in a speech to high school kids, says she's deeply influenced by Mao Zedong, that -- I mean, that is crazy." You just earned yourself a spot on the doubleplus ungood list, buddy... Fox News contributor Karl Rove, who was the top political strategist to former President George W. Bush, said: "This is an administration that's getting very arrogant and slippery in its dealings with people. And if you dare to oppose them, they're going to come hard at you and they're going to cut your legs off." "This is a White House engaging in its own version of the media enemies list. And it's unhelpful for the country and undignified for the president of the United States to so do," Rove added. "That is over-the-top language. We heard that before from Richard Nixon." Media columnist David Carr of The New York Times warned that the White House war on Fox "may present a genuine problem for Mr. Obama, who took great pains during the campaign to depict himself as being above the fray of over-heated partisan squabbling." "While there is undoubtedly a visceral thrill in finally setting out after your antagonists, the history of administrations that have successfully taken on the media and won is shorter than this sentence," Carr wrote over the weekend. "So far, the only winner in this latest dispute seems to be Fox News. Ratings are up 20 percent this year." He added: "The administration, by deploying official resources against a troublesome media organization, seems to have brought a knife to a gunfight." Ah, there's the problem. If they brought a real Chi-town weapon, like a railroad tie...they'd whomp Fox for sure.... | ||
| Posted by:Cornsilk Blondie |
| #12 Gawd forbid a reporter would ever check sources ... you left a few words out. Gawd forbid a reporter would ever check a democrat's sources. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-10-20 21:50 |
| #11 Tapper: It's escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations "not a news organization" and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it's appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one... Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage. Tapper: But that's a pretty sweeping declaration that they are "not a news organization." How are they any different from, say – Gibbs: ABC - Tapper: ABC. MSNBC. Univision. I mean how are they any different? Gibbs: You and I should watch sometime around 9 o'clock tonight. Or 5 o'clock this afternoon. Tapper: I'm not talking about their opinion programming or issues you have with certain reports. I'm talking about saying thousands of individuals who work for a media organization, do not work for a "news organization" -- why is that appropriate for the White House to say? Gibbs: That's our opinion. |
| Posted by: KBK 2009-10-20 21:36 |
| #10 News Corp, which owns the Fox cable network and local TV stations has been rumored to be interested in buying NBC/MSNBC. GE, owner of NBC, has lots of debt. I don't seen Eric Holder allowing that sale to happen; he would invoke anti-trust laws most likely. GE has been borrowing all the money it wants at Treasury interest rates because of the TARP program. Why would it jeopardize its hundred billion dollar credit line with the Treasury to sell a measly network? |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2009-10-20 19:51 |
| #9 Let them continue their attack on Fox. They're digging their own grave. Dunn and Duckworth are a couple of leftest wingnuts. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-10-20 19:46 |
| #8 Fox has in many cases far greater number of viewers than other networks. This bunch in the White House really don't give a rats ass about that do the? Either a very calloused move or a very dumb move. |
| Posted by: Tiny Ulomotch8885 2009-10-20 17:18 |
| #7 News Corp, which owns the Fox cable network and local TV stations has been rumored to be interested in buying NBC/MSNBC. GE, owner of NBC, has lots of debt. I don't seen Eric Holder allowing that sale to happen; he would invoke anti-trust laws most likely. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-10-20 15:47 |
| #6 Anita Dunn really damaged the other "news organizations" when she claimed the WH controlled them. She essentially admitted that they are nothing but pro-Obama propaganda outlets. They are control-freaks and Fox didn't conform. This is a unique situation as we are living in as a post-MSM world with the advent of the internet, cell phone videos, and access to real news and varied opinion. They must be going bonkers with each new incriminating video! Beck has called on the citizen watchdogs so they won't know what will blindside them next! Hee, hee:) |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2009-10-20 12:31 |
| #5 So far, none of the four other major networks has given any indication that they wish to disinvite Fox News from the White House pool -- the rotation through which the networks share the costs and duties of White House coverage and the most significant interaction among the news channels. Cause if WH pool reporting is reduced to the lowest common denominator, it will demonstrate to the next administration [if there is one], that they have no need for any of them. Got to protect their phoney baloney jobs! |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-10-20 11:43 |
| #4 Obama has an enemies list? How Nixonian! |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-10-20 11:38 |
| #3 the more they can treat Fox like one other organization, the easier they can get back to governing, and then put some people out on Fox," Gergen said on CNN. "I mean, for goodness sakes, you know, you engage in the debate. The problem is they don't want to govern, and they don't want to engage in debate. All they want to do is destroy their enemies (i.e. anyone with a different opinion). P.S. Anita Dunn really damaged the other "news organizations" when she claimed the WH controlled them. She essentially admitted that they are nothing but pro-Obama propaganda outlets. Why would anybody listen to them? |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2009-10-20 11:22 |
| #2 This is frightenung at so many levels. When the Jews in Germany watched the gays being hauled off they probably wondered who's next, as the Jews were hauled off the gypsies watched wondering, but knowing. I may have the order wrong, but the point is MSNBC and the rest need to understand where this will go. This is just disturbing. This is an all out assault on the Constitution by our White House, this is Sedition, I can think of no other term that fits. Free speach IS the cornerstone to our nations constitution. That president is going to disregard the very foundation of our nation until we are in a full blown totalitarian state. BTW, I'm not a big fan of FOX or any of the major networks, but this is unacceptable. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2009-10-20 11:15 |
| #1 So....what do I have to do to get a cage match w/ the WHCOS.....the WHINING SKINNY LITTLE PENCIL NECK GEEK?? (Classy Freddy Blassy) The W.H. needs to do it's JOB instead of screwin' around with this.....What a bunch of MAROONS!! |
| Posted by: armyguy 2009-10-20 10:46 |