By:Obama just can't stand it that, despite having CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSBNC, PBS, the NYT, LAT, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair - I'm sure I'm forgetting some - all on his side, rooting for him, slanting the news, one holdout stands alone. Since as far as I can tell, Fox News is the unofficial network of the Tea Party, which appears to be gathering steam daily mainly on the basis of opposition to our first post-racial president, Obama can't be doing himself any favors by talking in this way. But his haughty demeanor will have its way; he can't help himself.
CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
(CNN) - President Obama is pulling no punches when it comes to Fox News, declaring the cable news outlet to be "destructive to [America's] long-term growth."
In a more than 8,000-word interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Obama compared the cable news channel to papers owned by William Randolph Hearst at the turn of the 20th century that unabashedly pushed the media titan's own political views.
"You had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition – it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view," Obama told the magazine.
Officials in the Obama White House have long made Fox News a punching bag, launching a full blown offensive last year when aides declared the network to be "opinion journalism masquerading as news." Then-White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said the cable outlet "operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party," and top aide Valerie Jarret called Fox "clearly biased."
But the new comments from Obama constitute the president's most direct attack yet on the network owned by business mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Fox News pushes "a point of view that I disagree with. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world," Obama said.
Obama appears to equate "opposed to my administration" with "destructive", since he gives no explanation as to why Fox is as he describes.
Although Obama has been and continues to be among the most destructive of U.S. presidents, it is only because he has stood on the shoulders of giants.
Fox is honestly only about as conservative as the 50th percentile American. People like myself out in the 80th -99th percentile have no major media organ. The other major media organs are in the 5th-15th or so percentile on the right-left axis.
ReplyDeleteHello pot? This is kettle calling!
ReplyDeleteMSBNC
ReplyDeleteEspecially MSNBC; during the election it was 'The Obama Channel', and pretty much still is. Funny how the White House doesn't find much 'bias' there.
The Little O continues to demonstrate his almost complete inability to think strategically. Attacking Fox News simply positions himself as thin-skinned, unable to handle criticism, and petty. As if he's not in enough hot water, he deliberately calls attention to his critics.
ReplyDeleteCalling Obama the most destructive president ever is a little premature, considering the track record of Woodrow Wilson and FDR.
ReplyDelete"Although Obama has been and continues to be among the most destructive of U.S. presidents, it is only because he has stood on the shoulders of giants."
ReplyDeleteOuch.
"Then-White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said the cable outlet "operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party,""
ReplyDeleteIs that really inaccurate?
I don't watch Fox News but how could it be otherwise. News problem: you need an expert to say their part of the script of a story (all stories are "expert" / "naysayer" / "man on the street" structured).
The rest of the media simply goes to academia or think tanks like Brookings. These are all unofficial spokesmen of the Democratic party (or the other way around - either way it doesn't matter). Fox wants to put out a different perspective. Ok, good idea - but where can they find "experts" and "naysayers". Where is there a structure for finding people who are credentialed who are not on the left? There simply isn't one. The Republican party is pretty much all there is.
There's no right wing Harvard. There are no PhDs of HBD studies or tenured chairs of paleo dieting.
Fox simply reflects the reality that there is no organized right wing in America.
I'm with Rick. I'm thoroughly enjoying the Humpty-Dumpty fall of our God-President. I knew when he was elected and people were practically fainting with delight that he would end up being the most collosal failure as a President in living memory. No one could live up to that much hype. And what makes it even more likely is the man's huge ego. He really thinks he is something special - "I have a gift, Harry" (I'll never forget that one). His arrogance is going to wear on people more and more - the Mussolini poses with his chin in the air, the attitude of boredom and condescension he exudes, the "I'm so much better than all of you bitter clingers" vibe.... It is going to be delicious to watch this empty suit have to grapple with his continually growing unpopularity as time passes. I'm already looking forward to his concession speech on an early November evening in 2012 (unless, God forbid, Palin is nominated, in which case our black Nixon gets another term). Take a man with an ego as big as Obama's, make him feel unappreciated and misunderstood and feel as though the people failed him...and who knows what you get? I'm thinking of a black, taciturn Hitler in his bunker....
ReplyDeleteI always yawn when I see liberals going mental on Fox News. It's not my channel either, but, God, at least it's different. Everybody disses the 'teabaggers', can't they stand a bit of dissent?
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the media, there's no love for diversity.
"Although Obama has been and continues to be among the most destructive of U.S. presidents, it is only because he has stood on the shoulders of giants."
ReplyDeleteThe quote and others like it is the reason I return to this blog.
Obamer has a legitimate gripe. The left went to a lot of trouble to march through the institutions, bake leftism into journalism, and fob off the notion that leftism is the new normal. Then along comes some free enterprise/pro-Israel grasping capitalist to upset the apple cart.
ReplyDeleteWhen he attacked Fox News last year it backfired on him so why do it now? Rally the base by appealing to their seething hatred of Fox to help rally unenthusiastic activists and Dem voters thus limiting damage in November.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of Fox News, although it does some good work, I think it is more damaging in the long term to white conservative America than to the forces of liberalism. It picks up on implicitly white activism then directs it through Glenn Beck and others down a dead end road.
To me Fox News is no better than ABC, NBC, etc., in fact it's worse because it poses as the so-called conservative network. Fox as everybody knows is headed by globalist Rupert Murdoch, who along with Michael Bloomberg and others of that ilk were advocating for illegal alien amnesty a few months back. It's just a Neo-Con mouthpiece: pro immigration, pro war, pro-free trade, pro-Israel, pro-globalism. I wonder if Obama is really upset about Fox, or if it's just an elaborate shell game to get people invested in the phony left-right paradigm. I've tried to explain to mainline Republican types how Fox is not their friend, but they never seem to get it. Sean Hannity always brings a smile to my face. A good Irish boy who talks like he'd take a bullet for Israel.
ReplyDelete"More serious, however, is the effect that this mythology has had on suppressing information on the extraordinary health value of diets that are truly low in fat (10-12 percent). I am referring to a whole foods, plant-based diet that avoids added fat and processed and animal-based foods. This diet contains about 10-12 percent fat, sometimes pejoratively referred to as "extremely low fat". Call it what you will, but this diet (also low in total protein, about 8-10 percent) produces, by comparison, "extremely low" incidences of sickness and disease. In fact, it now has been shown not just to prevent these illnesses but to treat them. Importantly, this dietary lifestyle cannot be dismissed by the mythological argument that so-called low fat diets have been proven to be questionable." - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-colin-campbell/low-fat-diets-are-grossly_b_740543.html
ReplyDeleteMatt G is right that Fox News is not all good. Nowhere can I find minds like Derbyshire, Steyn, Sailer, or Brimelow. Absolutely right. However, Fox Business is full of brilliance with David Asman, Neil Cavuto, Stuart Varney, Elizabeth MacDonald,etc. doing battle every day with socialism.Judge Napolitano is also very enlightening.Great group!
ReplyDeleteOf course the pontificating Catholics like O'Reilly and Hannity rant out of pure egomania of the worst kind. Nothing worse than hearing them repeat PC mantras. Beck is a modern snake-oil salesman but his pointed critiques of our socialist president are on target and helpful. O'reilly is the worst of the lot because of his overbearing, obnoxious personality and abusive treatment of guests. He is an intolerable drag.
Fox-despite its defects- provides criticism of an otherwise dangerously dictatorial socialist. In the name of the poor America's wealth and superior society is being dismantled before our eyes. Fox Business gets an A+ from me while the other segments are mediocre at best. ABC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and BBC are liberal organs unable to provide intellectual balance but FOX on the business side shoots down villians every day!
What Matt G. said. Really, I couldn't possibly say it any better than that - Fox is a fake-right neocon trojan horse the left created to have someone to mock.
ReplyDeleteThus Fox plays Alan Colmes to the MSM Sean Hannity. :)
Man, I love the way the guy who defends ultra-low-fat diets for Huffington always puts carb in scare quotes. Because shortening "carbohydrate" to "carb" is so strange....
ReplyDeleteTo me Fox News is no better than ABC, NBC, etc., in fact it's worse because it poses as the so-called conservative network. Fox as everybody knows is headed by globalist Rupert Murdoch, who along with Michael Bloomberg and others of that ilk were advocating for illegal alien amnesty a few months back. It's just a Neo-Con mouthpiece: pro immigration, pro war, pro-free trade, pro-Israel, pro-globalism.
ReplyDeleteBingo.
I wonder if Obama is really upset about Fox, or if it's just an elaborate shell game to get people invested in the phony left-right paradigm.
I think you've nailed this one, too. Fox is the phony opposition to Obama. Obama knows this and is playing along. The idea that Fox News is some kind of genuine resistance is laughable.
I've tried to explain to mainline Republican types how Fox is not their friend, but they never seem to get it.
Fox News viewers are generally idiots. It's hilarious how the right-wing types who gripe about the mass media will lap up anything on Fox without a hint of skepticism. Glenn Beck has basically turned cultural Marxism into a core conservative virtue and Fox News viewers are too stupid to figure out how badly they're being played.
Although I am a long term reader of Vdare, Sailer, KMac, Mangan, etc., I've been watching Fox News since the crybaby in chief got elected because all the other channels are so despicably sycophantic. And I've come to find find that Fox is pretty enjoyable watching! If a Republican gets elected in 2012 though, it will again revert to the uselessness of the other networks.
ReplyDeleteWe need at least 1 network that is owned, staffed by and has the viewpoint of "us folks" - the silent white majority. Pat Buchanan said as much in 1975 in his first book, "Conservative Votes, Liberal Victories."
"It is going to be delicious to watch this empty suit have to grapple with his continually growing unpopularity as time passes. I'm already looking forward to his concession speech on an early November evening in 2012"
ReplyDeleteLeaving aside the issue of how much an improvement the GOP candidate in 2012 might be, I wouldn't hold my breath on Obama losing. In fact, if I had to, I'd bet on him being re-elected.
He'll still have the large advantage of being the incumbent potus and he'll again almost certainly have a media that will do all and anything for him. He'll also likely have a Republican Congress to run against.
And what happens if there is another major terrorist attack or a new war? People might rally around him. What a revolting thought.
Unless the economic doomsday scenario that people like Dennis and Richard Spencer tout happens-and it might-the chosen one still seems like a pretty fair bet to win a second term.