White House Escalates War of Words With Fox News

[Guest guest]

This is a very worrisome development given how the new Fairness Doctrine is on its way, one that will also apply to the internet and websites. Very simply they will shut down all opposition to their own propaganda in an extreme violation of the First Amendment.

If really want to see the propaganda arm of a political party, just look at most of the rest of the media. GE owns NBC. Immelt who is the GE CEO hugely supports Obama and the Dems not only by campaign contributions, but also the slant of the news reporting. Small coincidence what the government is looking to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars through GE for "green technology" and so on.

The corruption behind all of this is wildly massive. Once FOXNEWS and the few other opposition news sources and boards are crushed, they can really do whatever they want.

In a message dated 10/16/2009 1:13:44 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

White House Escalates War of Words With Fox News

[Guest guest]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/12/white-house-escalates-war-words-fox-n\

ews/

White House Escalates War of Words With Fox News

Anita Dunn, White House communications director, calls Fox News a " wing of the

Republican Party, " after the White House began using its government blog to

criticize " Fox lies. "

FOXNews.com

Monday, October 12, 2009

Calling Fox News " a wing of the Republican Party, " the Obama administration on

Sunday escalated its war of words against the channel, even as observers

questioned the wisdom of a White House war on a news organization.

" What I think is fair to say about Fox -- and certainly it's the way we view it

-- is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party, " said Anita Dunn,

White House communications director, on CNN. " They take their talking points,

put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And

that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is. "

Fox News senior vice president Clemente, who likens the channel to a

newspaper with separate sections on straight news and commentary, suggested

White House officials were intentionally conflating opinion show hosts like

Glenn Beck with news reporters like Major Garrett.

" It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion

programming, " Clemente said. " It seems self-serving on their part. "

In recent weeks, the White House has begun using its government blog to directly

attack what it called " Fox lies. " Gergen, who has worked for President

Bill Clinton and three Republican presidents, questioned the propriety of the

White House declaring war on a news organization.

" It's a very risky strategy. It's not one that I would advocate, " Gergen said on

CNN. " If you're going to get very personal against the media, you're going to

find that the animosities are just going to deepen. And you're going to find

that you sort of almost draw viewers and readers to the people you're attacking.

You build them up in some ways, you give them stature. "

He added: " The press always has the last barrel of ink. "

Gergen's sentiments were echoed by Tony Blankley, who once served as press

secretary to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

" Going after a news organization, in my experience, is always a loser, " Blankley

said on CNN. " They have a big audience. And Fox has an audience of not just

conservatives -- they've got liberals and moderates who watch too. They've got

Obama supporters who are watching. So it's a temptation for a politician, but it

needs to be resisted. "

Nia Malika , White House correspondent for the Politico newspaper, also

questioned the White House offensive against Fox.

" Obama's only been a boon to their ratings and I don't understand how this kind

of escalation of rhetoric and kind of taking them on, one on one, would do

anything other than escalate their ratings even more, " she said.

Dunn used an appearance on CNN's " Reliable Sources " over the weekend to complain

about Fox News' coverage of the Obama presidential campaign a year ago.

" It was a time this country was in two wars, " she recalled. " We'd had a

financial collapse probably more significant than any financial collapse since

the Great Depression. If you were a Fox News viewer in the fall election, what

you would have seen would have been that the biggest stories and biggest threats

facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and something called ACORN. "

Ayers was co-founder of the Weather Underground, a communist terrorist group

that bombed the Pentagon and other buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1995,

Ayers hosted Obama at his home for a political function and the two men later

served together on the board of an anti-poverty group known as the Woods Fund.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which once

had close ties to Obama, has been accused by a variety of law enforcement

agencies of voter fraud. In recent weeks, the Democrat-controlled Congress moved

to sever funding to ACORN after Fox News aired undercover videotapes of ACORN

employees giving advice on how to break the law to a pair of journalists

disguised as a pimp and prostitute.

As for Dunn's complaint about Fox News' coverage of the Obama campaign, a study

by the Pew Research Center showed that 40 percent of Fox News stories on Obama

in the last six weeks of the campaign were negative. Similarly, 40 percent of

Fox News' stories on Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. McCain, were

negative.

On CNN, by contrast, there was a 22-point disparity in the percentage of

negative stories on Obama (39 percent) and McCain (61 percent). The disparity

was even greater at MSNBC, according to Pew, where just 14 percent of Obama

stories were negative, compared to a whopping 73 percent of McCain stories -- a

spread of 59 points.

Although Dunn accused Fox News of being a " wing of the Republican Party, " she

said the network does not champion conservatism.

" It's not ideological, " she acknowledged. " I mean, obviously, there are many

commentators who are conservative, liberal, centrist -- and everybody

understands that. "

Still, Obama refused to appear on Fox News Sunday with Wallace on Sept.

20, the day he appeared on five other Sunday shows. At the time, the White House

characterized the snub as payback for the Fox Broadcast Network's decision not

to air an Obama prime time appearance. But last weekend, Dunn blamed Fox News

Channel's coverage of the administration for Obama's snub of Fox News Sunday.

" Is this why he did not appear? " Dunn said. " The answer is yes. "

Wallace has called White House officials " the biggest bunch of crybabies I have

dealt with in my 30 years in Washington. "

Dunn was asked by CNN's Kurtz whether Obama would grant an interview to

Fox News by the end of the year.

" Obviously, he'll go on Fox, because he engages with ideological opponents and

he has done that before, he will do it again, " Dunn replied. " I can't give you a

date, because frankly I can't give you dates for anybody else right now. "

But last week, Fox News was informed by the White House that Obama would grant

no interviews to the channel until at least 2010. The edict was relayed to Fox

News by a White House official after Dunn discussed the channel at a meeting

with presidential spokesman Gibbs and other Obama advisers.

" What I will say is that when he (Obama) goes on Fox, he understands he's not

going on it really as a news network, at this point, " Dunn said on CNN. " He's

going on to debate the opposition. And that's fine. He never minds doing that. "

Dunn also strongly implied that Fox had failed to follow up on a New York Times

story about a scandal swirling around GOP Sen. Ensign of Nevada, although

Fox News broadcast the stories on numerous shows, including Special Report with

Bret Baier.

Clemente questioned the motives of the White House attack, which comes in the

wake of an informal coffee last month between Fox chairman Ailes and Obama

adviser Axelrod.

" Instead of governing, the White House continues to be in campaign mode, and Fox

News is the target of their attack mentality, " he said. " Perhaps the energy

would be better spent on the critical issues that voters are worried about. "

Blankley suggested the war on Fox News is unpresidential.

" It lowers the prestige, " he said. " If you're president or speaker, at a certain

level, you don't want to be seen to be engaging that kind of petty bickering. If

you're just a congressman, maybe you can do it. "

In an interview over the summer, Obama made clear that Fox News has gotten under

his skin.

" I've got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my

administration, " he told CNBC's Harwood. " You'd be hard pressed if you

watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front. "

At the White House Correspondents Dinner in May, Obama even mocked the media for

supporting him.

" Most of you covered me; all of you voted for me, " Obama said, spurring laughter

and applause from the assembled journalists. " Apologies to the Fox table. "

Gergen said the White House should delegate its attacks to outside support

groups.

" Why don't they take this over to the DNC, over to the Democratic National

Committee, and have their struggles like that fought out over there and not out

of the White House? " Gergen said. " I have real questions about that strategy. "

[Guest guest]

" The corruption behind all of this is wildly massive. Once FOXNEWS and the few

other opposition news sources and boards are crushed, they can really do

whatever they want. "

And it will happen as our own remaining media reports on the crackdown on the

media in Russia so that by comparrisson, it looks like we still have freedom of

speech.

One thing to note in fairness though: The Bush administration was fed up with

PBS's obvious support of the Democrats.

Administrator

[Guest guest]

We are probably going to go the way of Venezuela and Argentina. The media here hasn't made much noise about the crackdown in Venezuela (the government taking over and closing down opposition news sources) or Argentina's strict new laws regulating the media, which also was aimed at opposition sources. It probably will happen here too again and sooner than we think.

In a message dated 10/16/2009 2:20:28 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

And it will happen as our own remaining media reports on the crackdown on the media in Russia so that by comparrisson, it looks like we still have freedom of speech.One thing to note in fairness though: The Bush administration was fed up with PBS's obvious support of the Democrats.Administrator

[Guest guest]

That's actually happening a lot. Songs, cooking for Obama, pledges to help Obama and other things are happening all around the country. Its quite worrisome.

And this was the same government who was recently caught indoctrinating school children (it was captured on video) in New Jersey while they were at school? Yes, it was. Awful!Raven

[Guest guest]

wrote: " ... <snip> ... If really want to see the propaganda arm of a

political party, just look at most of the rest of the media ... <snip> ... "

And this was the same government who was recently caught indoctrinating school

children (it was captured on video) in New Jersey while they were at school?

Yes, it was. Awful!

Raven