"A White House attempt to delegitimize Fox News – which in past times would have drawn howls of censorship from the press corps – has instead been greeted by a collective shrug. That’s true even though the motivations of the White House are clear: Fire up a liberal base disillusioned with Obama by attacking the hated Fox.
Try to keep a critical news outlet off-balance. Raise doubts about future Fox stories. But most of all, get other journalists to think twice before following the network’s stories in their own coverage. "We're doing what we think is important to make sure news is covered as fairly as possible," a White House official told POLITICO, noting how the recent ACORN scandal story started because Fox covered it “breathlessly for weeks on end.” “And then you had a couple days of breast-beating from The Washington Post and The New York Times about whether or not they were fast enough on the ACORN story,” the official said.
“And it's like: Wait a second, guys. Let's make sure that we keep perspective on what are the most important stories, and what's being driven by a network that has a perspective.
Being able to make that point has been important.” To some media observers, it’s almost the definition of a “chilling effect” – a governmental attempt to steer reporters away from negative coverage – but the White House press corps has barely uttered a word of complaint. That could be because of the perception among some journalists that Fox blurs the line between reporting and commentary - making it seem like not the most sympathetic victim.
Fox denies its news coverage is slanted, and even White House aides say the network’s top correspondent there, Major Garrett, is a straight shooter. But in its non-news hours, Fox mixes in a steady diet of criticism of President Barack Obama by its prominent conservative commentators Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. It’s a formula that works for Fox, with the highest ratings in cable news."
You would think that team Obama would remember that point. Americans are tuning into to Fox 3-1 over the other cable outlets which incidentally - such as MSNBC - are nearly 100 percent pro-Obama. But the fact is that the viewership of Fox creams MSNBC and CNN combined on many time slots.
Now to the news. The ACORN story was, and is a huge story. The fact that other networks completely missed it, or more accurately ignored it, is telling. One, just like we found in the campaign they simply will not report negative on Obama no matter how many facts are thrown their way. They missed Jeremiah Wright, they missed Bill Ayers, Van Jones and continue to miss the story of ACORN's corruption.
Nevertheless you would think that they would have learned from Presidents of the past that demonizing the media, especially the stronger media like Fox gets them no where. Just as you get when you fight the Hulk, he only gets stronger. All the White House did by this kids game of "liar, liar" is drive more viewers to Fox to find out what the fuss is about.
The paranoia of this administration is astounding, if not funny to watch.
October 20, 2009
Tags :
Barack Obama
,
Fox News
Subscribe by Email
Follow Updates Articles from This Blog via Email
No Comments