The White House escalated its offensive against Fox News on Sunday by urging other news organizations to stop “following Fox” and instead join the administration’s attempt to marginalize the channel.
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN that President Obama does not want “the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox.”
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.”
By urging other news outlets to side with the administration, Obama aides officials dramatically upped the ante in the war of words that began earlier this month, when White House communications director Anita Dunn branded Fox “opinion journalism masquerading as news.”
On Sunday, Fox’s Chris Wallace retorted: “We wanted to ask Dunn about her criticism, but, as they’ve done every week since August, the White House refused to make any administration officials available to ‘FOX News Sunday’ to talk about this or anything else.”
The White House stopped providing guests to ‘Fox News Sunday’ after Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August. Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was “something I’ve never seen a Sunday show do.”
“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 Tse-tung, 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.”
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.”
(Source: Fox News)
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23 Responses
Just like JFK and the New York Herald Tribune.
Fox will probably be able to boost its audience.
WAKE UP AMERICA!!! Here comes BIG BROTHER!!! The next thing obama will do (after nationalizing health care) will be to get the 2nd amendment repealed to disarm the country (as hitler, yimach sh’mo, did in germany in 1938). The next thing after that, will be to nationalize the media, i.e. to have State run radio and television – to silence the voice of the opposition – WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS STARTING TO DO ALREADY BY ATTACKING FOX NEWS! HELLOOOOO!!! Is ANYONE out there awake and listening?!? Don’t say later that you weren’t warned!!!
Communism!
How dare Obama treat the USA like Russia!
Down with Obama! Enough is Enough!
Freedom is what America is all about. Freedom of press and speech is every American’s given right..he can’t take it away from us. So what if he doesn’t agree, Obama doesn’t have to..we all don’t agree with Obama!!
Send obama back to kenya with all the other clowns!!!!!!!!what a pathetic bunch of haughty power hungery animals!!!!!!!!!!11
This naive, green-twig, totally out-of-bounds, crackpot president, who could have only gotten into the White House after the calamity of a Bush/Cheney White House, has to be stopped. To say he is incompetent, too, would be step up and a compliment.
The three branches of government were established, in part, to ensure no one person or branch becomes too powerful. In addition, Freedom of the Press was established, in part, as ANOTHER check and balance to keep power in check. Even though the media lost it’s journalistic integrity a long-time-ago, Obama is way out of bounds with harassing the media to do what he wants.
Instead of trying to bring down the Dems, years ago, with a botch job like picking on Clinton for being a pig in the Oval Office, Obama is CERTAINLY dealing with our allies, enemies, health care, foreign policy, and now the media in a way that is anything but presidential.
Impeach Obama!
DON’T BE DISTRACTED BY THIS NONSENSE. IT’S A CLEAR CASE OF “WAG THE DOG” TO GET YOUR EYES OFF THE BALL.
The main battle is Healtcare–the attempt by Obama and his minions to take over 16% of the American economy.
While everyone is arguing over this “Tempest in a Teapot,” Senators Harry Reid, Max Bacus, and Chris Dodd are meeting in a (smoke-filled?) back room, togehter with Obama’s people to crafta a “Healthcare” bill that will soon be rammed through the House and Senate.
It will happen so fast, you won’t even know what’s going on, until it’s too late.
AinOhdMilvado – Aint gona happen because of the deep timtum halev
Rebshalom #9 – You GOTTA be kidding!!! Fox distorts and fabricates?!? CNN wouldn’t know what truth is if they tripped over it!!! CNN LIES!!! Fox isn’t perfect, but if they would get a mark of 75 (out of 100) CNN would get a 25!!! (and obama himself would get a minus 25!)
rebshalom:
Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. But that does not give the president the right to muzzle criticism.
This is no better than Bush firing prosecutors. It’s blatant abuse of power, and it’s going to backfire on Obama just like Bush’s abuse backfired on him.
Thank you AinOhd Milvado. I thought I was the only person who finds this behavior from the White House terrifying. I wish all my loved ones (all the Jews) would leave American and come here already.
To – Haifagirl: No, you are NOT the only one that sees “the handwriting on the wall”. What is even MORE scary, is that many people DO see it, but STILL choose to hide their heads in the sand and stay here, because EITHER they just can’t get themselves to face this frightening reality and/or deal with packing up their lives and making the move HOME, -OR, THEY WOULD do it, but can’t or wont leave other family members here, who can’t or wont leave.
obama the magician; watch what they are saying and avoid what they are doing. He is an egotisical maniac. This is the change he promise us and we are getting it. Look who is friends are, communist or socialist, look who is in his office czar[like in Russia right] and they believe in communism. Inconclusion look what his office does when people go against him, Joe the plumber or Fox news; this is Not normal. People might have to take to the street in order America become like Venezula, Cuba or Russia. Thanks for change
See what rush the king got to say:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/today.guest.html
-YWN good photo maybe you can spin it 180 degrees-
Punkt kapaya!
#2, stop it with the “don’t say you werent warned”. That is capitalizing on things for one’s own self interest. No matter WHO is in office, their non-supporters will ALWAYS cherry pick things to find something wrong. I hope you are not doing that.
#16 “veryinteresting” -> WHAT are you talking about? “self interest”? What “self interest”? You wrote -“Cherry pick things to find something wrong”? EVERYTHING is wrong! I would have to “cherry pick” to find something that is NOT wrong! This guy is a disaster for America, and an even bigger disaster for the Jews. All the leaders of our enemies are praising him! Doesn’t THAT tell you anything?!?
akuperma, do you want to destroy Fox News’ credibility as much as YonasonW wants to destroy mine?
flatbush bubby no worries you are destroying your own credibility each time u post on this forum. u dont need any help in that department.
may big brother be successful in all his endeavors,
Winston
tony smith, I know I don’t destroy my credibility. You are also someone who resents and Orthodox Jewish female who is a registered Republican? You also feel threatened that I will destroy your Jewish political base?
very entertaining response by u bubby. sadly its more nonsense coming from u oh well i knew it woulnt be anything else but stupidity from u.
#17, you jump from one thing to another after a good deal of redundancy on one point. Of course the people who dont like ANY politician will find horrible things, but the “I told you so” response is self-serving, and not a card many of us would want to play.
Yes, “cherry picking” to find VALUD things wrong, and then taking PERSONAL ownership for being ahead of the curve and having a crystal ball, is, again, self serving.
Curiously, what are YOU “DOING” that separates you from those who “see the writing on the wall” but decide to “bury their head in the sand?” (as you posted in #14) I truly am curious, with all due respect.
Fox news is no panacea of truthful reporting. People do not have to support the “better” one when the “better” one lacks substance, as well.