If the White House were truly, then, as it seems to be suggesting, to exempt itself from its unifying role—if it were to continue along on its Fox-o-phobic path—it would be doing a grave disservice not only to the huge swath of Americans who watch Fox News, but also to Americans more generally. It would reinforce informational divides, rather than narrow them. It would implicitly reject the notion of an American community itself, abandoning the promise of togetherness that electrified so many on election night in favor of the pettiness of partisanship. It would choose prose, as it were, over the country’s great potential for poetry.
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I see we've substituted "transparency" for "invisibility" in the Obama administration.
It's no wonder Obama hates Fox - Obama's crazy policies can't suffer scrutiny, and Fox is the only MSM outlet that will scrutinize Obama. But to seriously pout and whine? If you can't stand the heat...
This is another clear sign of the Chosen One's immaturity and lack of leadership acumen. He hasn't learned yet that the buck stops with him and that waving his hand majestically doesn't fix things. He'll soon learn that he can run, but he can't hide.
Only a truly naive upstart would smack the face of the most-watched news in the country when he's simultaneously trying to cram a radical agenda down the throats of TV-addicted voters.
#1 Posted by padikiller, CJR on Mon 12 Oct 2009 at 07:41 PM
I'm glad you are calling the Obama admin on this, but I have yet to see any of the major news outlets do so.
Frankly I find this much more troubling - less "petty" and more "demagogic." My tax dollars are being used to curtail freedom of the press? And this is being done by the same guy who espoused "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"?
Obama may be naive, but "Intolerant" is a better description.
#2 Posted by JLD, CJR on Mon 12 Oct 2009 at 11:29 PM
Fox News loves this sort of thing, because to consumers who are not particularly ideological, such as swing voters (who, by definition, vote Republican sometimes), the 'blowback' might be that the other news outlets are seen as soft on Obama and his team, just as administration ratings and the Democratic Party's fortunes decline.
Why can't 'neutral' press critics break down and concede that while Fox unquestionably leans 'Right', most of the rest of the television, radio, and newspaper media lean 'Left', especially on the social issues that are the great divide in our political culture. I wouldn't rely on Fox alone for news, but I wouldn't rely on the networks or CNN or MSNBC either - the latter clearly give away a social-left bias in their selection of what is and isn't 'news'. We now have vigorous debate and coverage of news that is embarrassing to liberals and liberal groups, which was very hard to find before Fox. That is a good thing. Fox has never done anything quite as sleazy as has The New York Times in the latter's performance in the Duke/lacrosse affair three years ago - which was clearly driven by Mr. Sulzberger's political obsessions . . . Does anyone take the Times seriously on race and gender issues? C'mon, admit it. Yet the Times is still the de facto assignment editor and talking-points generator for the networks, etc.
#3 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Tue 13 Oct 2009 at 12:51 PM
ChickaBOOMer: Nip It In The Bud
http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2009/10/nip-it-in-bud.html
#4 Posted by StewartIII, CJR on Wed 14 Oct 2009 at 09:32 AM
Here we go again - supposedly "trained" journalists resorting to false equivalence and lazy ethics. Fox needs to be checked, and no one else is doing it. Do your job and call out Fox for its incredible bias.
#5 Posted by Matt Nall, CJR on Thu 15 Oct 2009 at 06:02 PM
It's a free country and a free press. Obama doesn't owe these scummy people an interview any more than Bush owed any of the other networks interviews when he gave exclusive access to Fox News and put huge pressure on the non-conservative press outlets to give him positive coverage. Conservatives attack the media ALL THE TIME.
Fox is attacking democrats ALL THE TIME.
There is no taboo against making a public observation of a fact.
It's a non story when a republican does it to everybody, it should be just as insignificant w hen a democrat does it to fox.
#6 Posted by Thimbles, CJR on Fri 16 Oct 2009 at 03:18 PM
Do you not remember the famous PIPA poll?
http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Iraq/IraqMedia_Oct03/IraqMedia_Oct03_rpt.pdf
People who watch Fox News have more of their facts scrambled than anyone else.
#7 Posted by Tom J, CJR on Mon 19 Oct 2009 at 01:28 AM