Obama vs. Fox News - really???

Posted Sun, 10/18/2009 - 16:54 by J. Adams

I try to stay away from becoming inflamed about politics, and in particular over politics involving petty fights, but this fight is just so asinine that I feel like I must speak out about it.  What topic am I talking about?  The topic I am talking about is the recent furor, reported at Fox News and via the Associated Press, that the White House has decided they should be the final arbiters of who may and may not be considered true "news" reporters.  But they are forgetting their roots. Read on for a deeper dive into the stupidity that is modern politics.

When President Barak Obama decided to say this in a campaign interview in April 2008 with Chris Wallace from Fox News, he was doing it to improve his persona with those narrow few Fox News watchers who might vote Democrat in the upcoming Presidential election:

"You know, I've got to be more present. I've got to be knocking on more doors. I've got to be hitting more events. We've got to work harder because although it's flipped a little bit, we've always been the underdog in this race."

But apparently staffers can now handle the dirty work of dealing with Fox News because they won the election, and now get to blow off any of their detractors.  According to this Anita Dunn staffer, and I quote from the article linked:

"The administration was being attacked, members of this administration were being attacked, policies of this administration were being misrepresented — and that's a generous interpretation of how they were being described," Dunn said. "The reality is that at some point, the administration has to defend itself."

Really? The administration has to defend itself against apparent "lies" by maligning the OBVIOUSLY biased Fox News channel? And why do you have to defend them now? Chris Wallace was nothing but confrontational during the April 2008 interview with then Senator Barak Obama. Is it really new to the White House that Fox News reporters are confrontational with left-leaning politicians? These are quotes taken from the Fox News article on the subject:

"A lot of their news programming, it's really not news. It's pushing a point of view," senior adviser David Axelrod said on ABC's "This Week." 
"The way we -- the president looks at it and we look at it, is, it is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel added on CNN's "State of the Union."

Well, well, well. So in order to be a "respectable" news organization, that organization should not so much have perspectives on issues, but should report the news. Right... and I'm sure Wolf Blitzer, Katie Couric, and the other news anchors, reporters, staffers, business people behind the scenes, and C-level leaders in the more liberal news organizations don't EVER let those perspectives of theirs color the way they report the news, what they report, or what types of news stories they cover, right? Right. I'll believe that when hell freezes over. We ALL have perspectives and biases! Everyone, unless their IQ is below 50, knows that. So Mr. Axelrod's Emanuel's assertion is politics as usual - an inch deep and miles upon miles of BS. Spread it thin enough with clever talking points and turns of phrases, and maybe people really will believe they're walking on a bed of roses when they hear you speak!

So I understand that in the media game you win these stupid fights by slinging more mud than the other guy. But IF the White House is so enlightened to know what's best for me when it comes to healthcare, which businesses should stay in business and which shouldn't, or that President Obama actually deserved a Nobel Peace Prize, despite having done almost nothing so far except focus on trying to keep the economy from going completely off the rails set down by former Presidents Bush and Clinton, THEN you would think that they would be wise enough to steer clear of a petty fight with Fox News. But they haven't, and apparently that is because the White House administration is once again populated by a bunch of politicians who couldn't give two bits about the American people, but are instead concerned more about their own image, their own money, and getting re-elected.

Honestly, is there any point in trying to squash a free press? If they're telling lies, you have four other very large news/media organizations that could sort out the mess for you if it were really that important. And bashing Fox News over "biased" reporting is not important because everyone already knows Fox News caters to right-wing politics. And why shouldn't they?! They've got great ratings because people want to hear them say what they say.

President Obama got elected through the normal means of the process we go through in this country every four years. Why he is wasting my tax dollars and his time by letting White House staffers spend time focusing on Fox News' silly right-wing hyping of stories? Don't we have two wars, an economic disaster, and a plethora of energy problems that we could be spending a lot more time working on right now?  If this is how the President thinks "bringing people together" works, he clearly DOES NOT understand how communities of different, but equal, peoples can actually interact and live together despite their differences. I know that Fox News is terribly biased. DUH! Is this really news to anyone but the White House?!? But whether I choose to get my biased news and reporting from Fox News or the Huffington Post, I'm still going to be getting news reported in some biased form or fashion. That's called living in reality, Washington!

In summary, the White House is behaving like a bunch of five year olds in dealing with Fox News, in spite of their current claims to the contrary.