White House Urges Other Networks to Disregard Fox News
FOX News
The White House is calling on other news organizations to isolate and alienate Fox News as it sends out top advisers to rail against the cable channel as a Republican Party mouthpiece.
Top political strategists question the decision by the Obama administration to escalate its offensive against Fox News. And as of Monday, the four other major television networks had not given any indication that they intend to sever their ties with Fox News.
But several top White House officials have taken aim at Fox News since communications director Anita Dunn branded Fox “opinion journalism masquerading as news” in an interview last Sunday.
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN on Sunday 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.”
Asked Monday about another Axelrod claim that Fox News is just trying to make money, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that while all media companies fall under that description, “I would say sometimes programming can be tilted toward accentuating those profits.”
But by urging other news outlets to side with the administration, Obama officials dramatically upped the ante in the war of words that began earlier this month with Dunn’s comments.
So far, none of the four other major networks has given any indication that they wish to disinvite Fox News from the White House pool — the rotation through which the networks share the costs and duties of White House coverage and the most significant interaction among the news channels.
The White House stopped providing guests to “Fox News Sunday” after host Chris 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 Zedong, 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.”
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Wild Thing’s comment…….
Seperate is as desperate does. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
The battle royal is shaping up and Obama’s merry band of socialist, communists, leftie, Mao worshipers is going down.
New FOX news motto could be …… The news channel Obama teats as the enemy.
If Shep Smith has him quaking in his boots, how is he going to deal with Ahmadinejad? LMAO oh I just could not resist. heh heh
War in Afghanistan, Iraq
Possible wars in Iran, North Korea
Healthcare Issues
ACORN
Economy in the toilet
Banks failing
Car industry troubles
This administration is like a boat with no rudder, just then here for a little while, there for a little while. No direction. Sorta of like Gilligan’s Island
Hussein and minions are so stupid they haven’t figured out that each attack just causes Fox’s and Rush’s ratings to spike. The more people listening to the truth, the better it is for liberty. Bring. It. On.
More of those Alinsky’s rules for radicals. Remember when Chavez nationalized the media outlets that were critical of him. LOL
If you call ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC “news”.. then FOX is not “news.” The POTUS is running scared ’cause FOX NEWS is stealing the viewers away from the other stations and has grown significantly in popularity over the last couple of years. How can he send out his crap messages to the people if they no longer watch the white house-owned news outlets? Heh heh. Go FOX news!
This behavior is EXACTLY what the schools are trying to eradicate on the playground: surround, isolate, intimidate and emotionally destroy one child. They don’t hang signs on the elem and ms walls that say BULLY-FREE ZONE for no reason. This jerk and his henchmen never grew up. Disgusting role models. They make me sick. How anyone could question piping this bully’s speech into the schools several weeks ago is beyond me. He has so demeaned the Oval Office that he no longer has or deserves the respect the office holds with it.
As Americans we are paying dearly for our apathy toward those anarchists from the 60’s that are now in control of all school systems, the media, Congress and the recent invasion of the SCOTUS with the radical takeover of the commerce system. Our beloved GOP with extremely few exception is silent, even willing to openly aid the enemy within. Fox is the lone voice stating facts without the distortion, questioning motives as well as Constitutionality while ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC slither under the Hugo Chavez dictates of Obama and his czars.
I didn’t think we’d ever see a White House enemies list again, at least not at this level. The Executive Branch of our government is going after a group of citizens (FOX News) who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
The absolute ARROGANCE is beyond astounding.
Another snubbing of The Constitution by obama. Fox News is exercising the First Amendment for free speech. Once in a while I watch a broadcast daily news show. What they don’t say or how they say it speaks volumes for media bias. Fox reports on important political events and people. I don’t recall Fox carrying water for Bush like the other media completely cover up for obama.
I hope Fox continues to grow while the others continue to wither.
So now he wants to tell me what I can and can’t watch? Excuse me? Sorry. I like Fox news and enjoy Fox and Friends in the morning before leaving for work or church. Steve Doocy is amazingly funny, Gretchen is so sweet and Brian is a goofball. They aren’t so serious and that makes the news go down a bit better than the other channels.
And is his skin so thin that he can’t handle a little disparaging remark about himself and his administration from time to time? Holy cow! Think about all the bad things that were said about Bush. He never complained.
Mouthpiece for the Republican party? They seem quite happy with ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and The View being mouthpieces for the Democratic party. Can’t handle any competition. Isn’t there something unconstitutional or at least illegal about using a public office to run down a privately own business in favor of one you like?
Over a year ago at this time the yellowcoat DNC wouldn’t even award a 2008 Presidential Debate to FOX! Imagine that? Can you imagine the OUTRAGE if President George W. Bush had dissed CNN and MSNBC this way in 2001?
The White House would not be dumb enough to make a rookie mistake like this unless they were desparate and see Fox as a clear and present danger. Their slimyness is being daylighted by Fox and they know it’s a cancer. Fox, and Glenn Beck in particular, is making a serious impact on their ability to bring us down.
Thank you everyone so much!!!!
Well les see they are at war with Fox News, the Right wing of this country, aka, conservatives, now I hear they have declared war on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It seems they, obama and ilk, are at war with everybody except the Tollyban. Talk about misplaced priorities. This bunch is world class whiners.