Rove compares Obama to Nixon, accuses WH of keeping ‘enemies list’

By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer
Sunday, October 18th, 2009 -- 11:11 am
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nixon speech Rove compares Obama to Nixon, accuses WH of keeping enemies listAxelrod, Emanuel: Fox 'not really news'

Former Bush White House adviser Karl Rove has compared President Barack Obama to former President Richard Nixon, saying the Obama administration's feud with Fox News is proof the White House is creating a Nixonian "enemies list" that "demeans" the office of the president.

"This is the White House engaging in its own version of the media enemies list," rove told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. "It's unhealthy for the country and undignified for the president of the United States so to do."

Wallace had invited Rove and longtime Democratic Party operative Terry McAuliffe to discuss the White House's de facto boycott of the news network ever since the Fox network failed to broadcast the president's speech on health care to Congress last month.

"Fox News carried the speech to the American people," Rove said, pointing out it had been the broadcast network, not the news network, that failed to carry the speech. "There are objectionable things said on MSNBC, every network. ... That ought not be the standard that a White House decides to demonize a news channel as an enemy. They called it a White House enemy. That is over-the-top language. We heard that before, from Richard Nixon. ... It's not helpful. It's demeaning to the president."

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Last week, White House communications director Anita Dunn said Fox News "often operates as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican party."

Since then, Fox has been on the defensive. On Friday, Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Fox network, said the White House's campaign against his company was boosting its ratings.

AXELROD, EMANUEL: FOX 'NOT REALLY NEWS'

But that hasn't stopped Obama administration insiders from pressing the attack. On ABC's This Week, senior White House adviser David Axelrod told host George Stephanopoulos that Fox News is "not really news."

"Mr. Murdoch has a talent for making money, and I understand that their programming is geared toward making money," Politico quoted Axelrod as saying. "The only argument Anita [Dunn] was making is that they’re not really a news station if you watch even — it’s not just their commentators, but a lot of their news programming.

"It’s really not news — it’s pushing a point of view. And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way. We’re going to appear on their shows. We’re going to participate but understanding that they represent a point of view,” he said.

That talking point was echoed by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on CNN's State of the Union Sunday.

“It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective, and that’s a different take," The Hill quoted Emanuel as saying. "And more importantly, it’s important not to have the CNNs and the others of the world being led and following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization."

This video is from Fox's Fox News Sunday, broadcast Oct. 18, 2009.


Download video via RawReplay.com

This video was broadcast on ABC's This Week on Sunday, October 18, 2009, and uploaded by MediaMatters.

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Story comments are below...
  • kasinca
    And KKK and the Bush Crime Family didn't have an enemies list? Bullsh*t!
  • Savantster
    .
    "It's unhealthy for the country and undignified for the president of the United States so to do."

    What's unhealthy for the country is to have a right-wing talking points CHANNEL that LIES about their agenda and PRETENDS to be a "news" channel. FOX is a PROPAGANDA channel, not a "news" channel, and THAT is the most unhealthy thing for our nation that we can have. If the right-wing had ANY credible leg to stand on, they wouldn't need to lie about so many things, they wouldn't need to paint such a distorted picture of every policy that helps the public, they wouldn't need to flat out fabricate shit that isn't true and never happened.. The right-wing, so wrong about most everything they have to fund an entire propaganda network just to avoid being laughed off the planet.

    Selfish, ignorant, greedy, abusive, deceitful pieces of shit are unhealthy for the Nation and world. If you're a right-winger, you're the problem. That includes YOU, Rove.... or should I say "Turd Blossom" like your old boss used to call you. Is that a jab at your closeted sexual preferences? or how you can turn some disgustingly abusive nasty policy into some "blossom" the masses might not notice?
  • WJM
    Two main things come to mind.
    1) Why the hell isn't Rove in jail, yet?
    2) It's interesting that Rove can't find anyone worse to compare Obama to, but the most hated president in at least MY lifetime, Nixon. Maybe someone should tell the pig faced boy that Nixon was one of THEIRS.

    On a minor note, People think that this war on the middle class happened with Reagan. It might have come to the top at that time, but it was really the threatened impeachment of Nixon and his resignation that CAUSED it. I noticed right after that that the republicans had turned nasty. They started acting like children who had been caught in the cookie jar, trying to point out everyone ELSE'S errors rather than to accept responsibility for their own. Ever since, they have been at the game to remove US from the equation. Remember, they think that THEY are far smarter than you, and that if they allow US to make the decisions, we will be destroyed as a country. Unfortunately, what THEY have done HAS destroyed the country. And still they blame US for the results of THEIR policies.

    Funny how the minor thought takes longer than the big ones...
  • winski
    Cluster-Fox is NOT news..never has been and never will be with thelie machine that runs it now...read em and weep..

    Turdblossum should be one of the TOP 5 on any WH enemies list... Plane stays warm on the tarmac at the military airfield in DC just waiting to fly to the Hague with Rove (and friends) aboard...
  • Name
    More projection from the fat criminal operative called Rove.
  • herb
    The fact of the matter is that Fox News is the enemy of the American people in their attempt to undermine the democratically elected Obama administration.
    Here we have a fascist foreigner spending billions to mislead and misinform
    the American people.
    Where is the outrage?
  • DCinDC
    Rove is very afraid that the truth will become known to the average voter that Fox News is the propaganda arm and a weapon of the GOP in which Rove is a leader. That is why Fox News hired Rove. Notice this propaganda report was on FOX.
  • canuckkid
    I guess Rove would be a definitive authority on Nixonian enemies' lists...
  • davidrvelasquez
    lol,yeah,...uh, what were all those US attorneys fired over?
  • CaptBebops
    Look who's talking.
  • TomR
    The more Rove talks, the more he reveals his secrets and what's in his bag of dirty tricks.

    Keep talking Turdblossom. Thank you,

    - Tom
  • TomR
    The more Rove talks, the more he reveals his secrets and what's in his bag of dirty tricks.

    Keep talking Turdblossom. Thank you.
  • iamtodd
    i don't get why rove is still getting air time to voice his opinion on the matter. he is responsible for there ever having BEEN a president bush. his actions directly led to the decisions made that got us into the economic crisis we find ourselves just now crawling out of thanks to swift actions of the obama administration. his actions directly led to the hate the world felt towards the US that the previous administration propagated through their "go-it-alone" attitude and foreign policy. rove has no place discussing blunders of presidencies when he is directly responsible for (hardly) arguably the worst president in US history. don't even tell me that W didn't have an enemies list, because HIS list just consisted of every mohammad, aazad, hashim and the like in the world. do us a favor karl, and the right-hand man of the GOP - F(au)X "Editorial, disappear.

    it can be argued that other networks such as CNN and MSNBC can sometimes appear favorable towards obama, but that is only because they must consistently combat the lunatic and more often incorrect and unfounded bantering coming out of almost every single F(au)X "Editorial" commentators' gullet. be fair and balanced like you once used to be. go back to being a news channel as opposed to an attack channel. you're digging your own graves for ratings. is it worth losing your credibility for ratings? who am i kidding. i'm just talking to a brick wall.
  • robertfromphila
    I guess that whatever karl Rove says must be true. It's like Rove is a White House insider; He's probably not allowed within 1/4 mile of the White House; in fact he's a toxic ass et and belongs in a super fund dump site. The one thing He's taught us it not to believe anything he and the republicans (including punditry) say.
  • peterlawrence
    Maybe, maybe not, Rove... But I'll tell ya this, I have an "enemies list" and guess who's at the top right next to Dick, you piece of shit!
  • nobodyforpresident
    Actually it's more of a douche bag list, Karl. You're near the top of it.
  • Ted. S
    This is so stupid. Why is Obama's team so obsessed with Fox news. They are a bunch of babies
  • I seem to remember seeing a picture of a young Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld and Daddy Bush sitting at a table with Nixon looking really chummy. I also seem to recall that Karl Rove wrote some really kiss ass letter to Nixon that was just released by the FOIA not too long ago...Badmouthing his hero, how two-faced!
  • AnthonyLook
    Someone please forward any and all incriminating information of Rove's illegalities. There has to be something out there. There has to be someone who has on hand proof of the slime this man is. Do America a favor and get this whining pundit out of our ears reach. Whomever outs this man and facilitates a conviction will be forever honored in the history books as an American hero.
  • Jeff
    Maybe they create enemies lists by caging. Rove knows all about caging http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=insnkei1e5Y
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