Friday, October 23, 2009

Obama And The War On FOX

Once again with the Obama Administration, we're seeing something unique.

By now, most of you have heard that the Obama Administration - including the president himself - is targeting FOX News, publicly denigrating them as 'not a real news organization' and urging other networks not to report on their stories.

The White House even attempted to exclude FOX from a pool interview with 'Pay Czar' Kenneth Feinberg until the other four networks protested and said that they were going to pass on the interview unless FOX was included.

However they might feel about FOX,they understand that with this president, they could very well be next. Not to mention the fact that the party and politics of the Occupant of the White House tends to change every four years or so, and payback is not fun, to say the least.

Strained relations between the White House and the media are hardly anything new, but we've never seen an actual attempt to deligitimatize their role. Nor have we ever seen a sitting president directly involved.

Usually,the White House communications director, spokesmouth/press secretary or the vice president fulfills the role of attack dog while the president stands aloof from the fray and stays presidential.

Admittedly, the White House is probably smart not to let Joe Biden's mouth run amuck, but seeing a sitting president personally throwing mud like this is unheard of.

Even a number of Liberal and moderate Democrats are disturbed at the way the Obama White House is handling this and are wondering why they're behaving in this fashion.

Two words: damage control.

The news biz, especially with the 24 hour cycle that never sleeps is not only demanding but voracious in its appetite. The monster has to be fed.

FOX by it's nature is much more connected to alternative media such as blogs and talk radio, and as a consequence has enjoyed a number of scoops on items like ACORN, Van Jones, Charlie Rangel, the NEA scandal and the ObamaCare battle, and in some cases ( but by no means all) the other alphabet networks have followed, redacting the content.

What the Obama Administration is attempting to do is trying to turn the media into it's personal Ministry of Propaganda, where Obama and the administration's policies are extolled and exalted and criticism is demonized.

Small wonder Obama's White House communication's director Ann Dunne adores Chairman Mao. In Mao's China, people were even coerced into wearing the same clothes, let alone expressing the same ideas.

It's a positive sign that even many voices on the Left, including hardliners like Helen Thomas and Donna Brazile have publicly come out against Obama's war on FOX, for strategic and practical reasons if nothing else.

That apparently hasn't fazed the White House in the slightest. They're already making a point of anointing their 'favorite' approved media figures - people like MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann.

I seem to recall a few things Barack Obama had to say about ending the devisiveness in Washington and being the president of all the people.

Just words....




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You wrote decisiveness, but I think you meant devisiveness. In truth, as shown by Obama's dithering over what to do in Afghanistan, he's ended the decisiveness too. Was this a Freudian slip?

Freedom Fighter said...

Hah! Must have been..but thanks for the correction.

louielouie said...

this should have been over before it started.
all hussein needed to do is call his friend ayers and get him to bomb fox news studios.
end of argument.
geez, do i have to think of everything?

Anonymous said...

http://www.lastingliberty.com today has a good article about this today: “Fox News Obama’s Only Friend”. The author makes a great point.

Freedom Fighter said...

Hello Anonymous 7:57

Yeah, I read it. It's an interesting take,but the writer assumes that Obama motives are basically benign and he's just misguided.

I disagree. I think what's going on with the economy and foreign policy is deliberate, and designed to achieve a goal on Obama's part.