There has been much chatter recently from the Obama White House attacking the credibility and intentions of Fox News.
Some accusations follow:
- White House communications director Anita Dunn suggested that, Fox News operated like an arm of the Republican Party (CNN)
- White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod, “It’s not really a news organization…We’re going to appear on their shows, we’re going to participate, but understanding they have a point of view.” (ABC, This Week)
- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, “It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective, and that’s a different take. And more importantly, it’s important not to have the CNN’s and the others of the world being led and following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization.” (CNN, State of the Union)
I can’t help but ask if Fox is becoming increasingly more Right, or if every other network is becoming increasingly more Left. Who is to say that the news organizations other than Fox haven’t just followed Obama’s goals and moved with him?
If given the opportunity, having the ability to choose can lead to startling results. In this instance, if Fox News is as far Right as it is being accused, with every increase in Fox’s ratings, another individual is signaling their disagreement with President Obama. Truth is in the numbers – ratings of CNN and MSNBC are declining while Murcdoch was recently quoted in the WSJ as saying the attention coming from the White House has, “tremendously increased their ratings.”
All news stations are biased, and I think what we’re seeing in the media is the same thing that we are seeing in every presidental election, the parties and opinions are so far polarized that the middle ground, the actual majority, is not represented.
According to White House spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai, it’s Republicans who “seem to be formulating lists of people and policies to oppose” while the president “is focused on tackling the list of critical priorities that Washington has ignored for too long.”
But has anything come out of the White House since January?
Obama is picking fights with Fox for the same reason that this summer he asked Americans to e-mail flag@whitehouse.gov if their friends and neighbors were “spreading rumors” about healthcare reform – because his image is everything. Obama’s strong reliance on speeches and rhetoric help to mask that he hasn’t accomplished anything since he’s been in office. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, he hasn’t been there long…but I’d really love to see him get something done before his next attack on the media, premature comment on a local issue, or media tour around the country talking about change.
.Alleigh
When you look back to 20th Century dictators they all had one thing in common. They all took over the press in their respective countries in order to control what their populace believed. This has been a strategy of some of the most vial perpatrators of crimes against humanity. Here is a brief list.
1. Adolf Hitler- Joseph Geobbels was his propaganda minister and took over complete control of radio, press, cinema and theater in 1933, he was also elected to the German Parliment and paved the way for Hitler’s rise to power. The Autrocities are to many to count after Hitler took control but we all know what he was responsible for.
2.Josef Stalin- Came to power in the years after Lenin died and purged (murdered) the communist party of any one who held the slightest inclanation of leaning away from communism or who he felt was an aristocrat. The amount of jews, christians and gypsies murdered under stalin has never really had an accurate count ( the russians did not keep records like the germans) but his propoganda machine and his murderer’s will was feared in the USSR and the countries handed to him by FDR and Truman.
3. Mao Zedong (Anita’s favorite)- Tortured the chinese people for 30 years, murdered millions of his own people including pregnant women and older generation chinese to enforce population control. (his body count has never been fully accessed) Put on great parades for the rest of the world to fear, we kicked his a** in Korea even though the left will not admit it. Him and stalin actually hated each other.
Just three examples of state controlled press and what eventually happened to peoples oppressed under them. as much as I despise the left leaning media for not doing their job, I would lay my life on the line like countless ones before me have in order to protect them. The media is the ultimate check against government and the administration has them in their hands. But they will pay a price for it, the media is striking back led by Fox News and Talk Radio. They can play the timeout game if they want to with Fox but it will not work. It didn’t work for Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. and it won’t work for the OBAMANATION. My advice to the Blue Dogs in Office is don’t follow the administration it will lead to political suicide. As Americans we have to remind the press everyday why they have failed in recent decades and remind them why we need them.
The Common Guy