By launching coordinated, fully-blown warfare on Fox News, as is their style, the Obama administration is stopping far beneath the dignity of the office of president. The recent round of attacks became particularly intense as White House communications staff, senior advisors, and even the president himself each took their turns at lobbing potshots at the top cable news station.
This conflict began brewing during the presidential campaign with Obama cracking jokes and complaining about Fox News, continued through the early months of his presidency, and then increased their momentum to reach the unprecedented crescendo of the recent bombardments. The first new round of shots was fired when Obama visited five Sunday morning shows in one day, including the big networks, CNN, and Univision, but clearly neglecting to appear on the leading cable news station, Fox.
The real battle began on October 12, when Communications Director Anita Dunn defined Fox News as "a wing of the Republican Party" then mocked and belittled it by saying, "But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is." She continued her diatribe by calling Fox News "opinion journalism masquerading as news." This statement is most ironic given that CNN dubbed legitimate tea party protesters "tea baggers" and whose own reporter shouted down protesters, lecturing them about how wonderful Obama's policies are for them. In a recent recording, Dunn brags about how the Obama campaign controlled their message and their media coverage. Evidently, Anita Dunn abhors Fox News because they refuse to be lapdogs like the rest of the media. Dunn pridefully declared that no one from the Obama administration will be appearing on Fox for at least the rest of this year.
The attacks intensified when White House senior advisers Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel played their roles by hitting the Sunday talk-show circuit with their disdain for Fox News. They repeated the same prepared lines from the White House, stating that Fox was not a news organization. Evidently Emanuel and other team members are upset that Fox covers newsworthy stories, including ACORN and Van Jones, while the mainstream, liberal media barely mention them. Fox represents a voice they don't control. Consequently, Team Obama is engaging in the tactics of Obama's extremely radical, left-wing mentor, Saul Alinsky, to isolate and discredit them.
The assaults sunk to new lows this week when President Obama personally entered the scene. Illustrating just how thin-skinned our commander-in-chief is, he pronounced that Fox News is "operating basically as talk radio," meaning, talk radio allows people to criticize Obama. It is particularly telling when a president stoops to the level of criticizing a news organization, because it reveals how desperate, frightened and threatened he truly feels.
The lapdog media have responded as expected to this unprecedented assault on free speech and a news organization. Only Jake Tapper of ABC and Helen Thomas, dean of the press corps, have stood up and argued that the White House is using outlandish, reprehensible tactics. Outside of these two, the lapdog media remain passive and mum. In a column for Newsweek, Jacob Weisberg is even calling for a media boycott of Fox News, claiming that the organization is "Un-American."
The hypocrisy and double standard displayed by these media types is truly unbelievable. If Bush or a Republican candidate for office had ever criticized MSNBC and declared it to be a wing of the Democratic Party, the criticism would never end. The worst hypocrite of all is Keith Olbermann.
In 2008, White House Counsel Ed Gillespie sent a letter to the president of NBC accusing the network of selectively editing Bush's answers to distort the president's position. Olbermann later blasted Gillespie in his "Worst Person in the World" segment, accusing Gillespie of "whining like a high school sophomore." What is Olbermann doing now? He is out front cheerleading the Obama administration's attacks on Fox and attended a meeting with Obama this week in a summit for fellow liberal influencers including Rachel Maddow, Eugene Robinson and Maureen Dowd.
Lapdog Olbermann the Doberman is an outspoken bigot, evidenced by his own words: "Mr. Bush, shut the hell up!" "You're a fascist! Get them to print a T-shirt with the word 'fascist' on it!" "George W. Bush is 'psychotic' with 'blood on his hands,'" and calls the GOP the greatest terrorist threat in America. The liberal double standard is out in full force. Thankfully, Americans are ignoring President Obama's pettiness and attacks by tuning into Fox for the unbiased story in record numbers. The American people know bias when they see it, and they want to know the truth.
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