Obama goes on offensive against Fox News

By Joe Byrne
Saturday, October 17th, 2009 -- 9:18 pm
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Update (at bottom): Senior White House adviser says Fox News 'not really a news station'

barackobama20080821 b Obama goes on offensive against Fox NewsThis week, the Obama administration quietly announced their intentions concerning a change in behavior towards Fox News, reports the NYT's David Carr. No longer comfortable ignoring the animosity the news network directs at the president, “We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent,” Anita Dunn, the White House communications director, said in an interview with the Times.

Until a month ago, the conflict between Fox News and Barack Obama only went in one direction. As soon as Obama was in office, promotion and coverage of tax day 'tea parties' was aimed at the new president. More recently, the extreme right-wing statements of Glenn Beck drew attention to the infamous network. The discovery of Van Jones' past activism and the coverage of the investigation contributed to the dislike between both parties.

Fox News Network's general offensive against president Obama has been paying off: according to Carr, ratings are up 20% this year.

Obama has much more to lose than Fox News. On the campaign trail, one of his hallmark traits was the ability to take the higher road and be above partisan squabbling. “I will listen to you,” he declared after emerging as the victor, “especially when we disagree.”

Story continues below...

But the disagreements that Fox News and Obama's administration have are just too big to overcome. On September 20th, the president appeared on all the Sunday talk shows except Fox News'. As a guest on CNN, Anita Dunn explained, "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."

Additionally, the White House has told Fox News not to expect presidential access until at least 2010.

Update: Senior White House adviser says Fox News 'not really a news station'

Speaking with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, senior White House adviser David Alexrod explained that Fox News is "not really a news station."

"It's not just their commentators, it's a lot of their news programming," he said. "It's not news, it's pushing a point of view. We're going to appear on their shows. We're going to participate, but understanding that they represent a point of view."

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel also took time on Sunday to criticize Fox News, saying they are "not a news organization, so much as it has a perspective."

"More importantly," he continued, "is not have the CNN's and the others in the world basically be led and following Fox, as if what they're trying to do is a legitimate news organization."

"On 'Fox News Sunday,' anchor Chris Wallace said the White House had declined to provide a guest," Politico reported.

This video is from ABC News, broadcast Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009.

This video is from CNN's State of the Union, broadcast Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009.

Stephen C. Webster contributed to this report.

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Story comments are below...

  • obamasucksagain
    Sounds like a bunch left wing Californian nut jobs in here. If Fox News is so bad, why do they have the highest ratings. Obama, like a typical democrat, always tries to switch the blame on somebody else when they are fought. The demcrats are merely trying to shift the news off them for their BS heathcare which is another debt laden program.
  • dan
    We need to re-institute the "Fairness Doctrine" with our upcoming media reforms. The reason the high warbling, far right loons oppose this, is included in that original regulation, was a proscription on lying.

    It used to be illegal to deliberately lie. Now the Corporate Globalist Murdoch has made it an industry. How does it feel to be a pawn for the global elites, suppressing free speech through sweetheart bandwidth deals between foreign powers and corrupt republicans?

    Come on now. I know you can say his name.

    BUR-AWK - BUR-AWK

    I knew you could do it, Polly.
  • yodasworld
    Fox is and has always been the propaganda channel for the GOP...Fox makes no bones about their hate towards President Obama and all Democrats...The White house should toss out Major Garrett from the WH press corp as well, along with any of the other Fox haters of America...
  • brain1
    Direct TV, and Dish Network should drop FOX News, and replace it by bringing back Tech TV!!!!
  • I love obama
    I've been thinking that for the last 9 years since fox news made bush so proud in florida.
  • Justin Dalton
    I find it interesting that the vast majority of the posts here are filled with vicious curse words, over generalizations, and a general disdain for our constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of the press. I have only seen one or two posts that indicate any sort of reasoning as to why they hold such a low opinion of the Republican Party in general and Fox News in particular. Do you actually know why you believe in Democratic Party ideals? Are you incapable of discussing and debating in a calm and rational manner? I am a conservative who generally votes republican because there isn't a better alternative. I disagreed with Bush on many issues and was glad to see him go. I think the Patriot Act that so many have invoked here is a travesty that flies in the face of the Constitution. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security was a huge mistake. I am fairly Jeffersonian and believe that smaller decentralized government is better, primarily because the bigger a government is the more inefficient it is, and the less it actually represents it's constituents. Is there anyone here with an intelligent response?
  • dan
    It's the comments section associated with a specific article at rawstory dot com. There are blogs, chat engines, and the world wide web for extended discussion or debate. Perhaps you would like to fill the auditorium with a torrent of oratory, refute the base assertions of the unwashed rabble, and refine the evangelical methodologies of the Milt Friedman/Pinochet/Anarcho-Libertarian GOP, to make it's virtues more obvious to those of less enlightened political predispositions.

    You don't know where you are. You don't know what you're doing. You don't know who you are talking to. You are vexed in your troll mission at Rawstory.

    I only come here to cuss and tell pompous right wingers to fuck the fuck OFF. I'm happy that you are sad. i drink your tears.
  • dan
    When Chavez decided not to renew the license of the US backed "news" channel that called for the violent overthrow of that democratically elected government, the US right wing denounced him as a despot. I thought it was perfectly ok, and we would do far worse than Chavez did, if that happened in the United States. We have laws.

    Faux News is intent on pushing the envelope. I say, let's do 'em. Throw the cuffs on these fuckers. They are very, very close.
  • gman
    Is Rupert Murdoch even an American? Doesn't he live in Taiwan or something?
  • gman
    Fox predicting wargames and planes crashing into world trade pre 9/11
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB6EWF3vulc
  • dennycrane
    If you read the FCC regulations that were written at the beginning, the public air ways are part of the "commons" to help its citizens and to "space" the stations so they couldn't "step" on each other or some would shutdown/broadcast at sunrise/sunset A part of the "broadcast" day was to maybe "trade" recipes, announce AAA meetings, sport events, free classifieds, etc. The goal now is to "whip-up" the communities into a "whimsy" and go down the block with tar and feathers and fuck with people because some "radio clown" with a "blow torch" of a transmitter said so. But, "ownership" is mightier than the "pen."
  • terrymo1
    What everyone needs to do,is email,all the beckerheads at fux nous and tell them "they are going to die"!That is not a threat,it is a simple truth that all of us has to face.But when you tell the truth,it scars the hell out of them!
  • trout
    'Bout time !
    If I was him I'd call in an Air Strike.
  • nader paul kucinich gravel
    NEOCON NEWS NETWORK

    5 dancing Israelis arrested on 911 in NYC demand the US start & fight more wars for Israel.

    ~would have been too darn expensive to remove all that asbestos from the twin towers~

    Modern day warrior
    Mean mean stride
    Today's Tom Sawyer
    Mean mean pride

    Though his mind is not for rent
    Don't put him down as arrogant
    His reserve a quiet defense
    Riding out the day's events
    River

    What you say about his company
    Is what you say about society
    Catch the mist catch the myth
    Catch the mystery catch the drift
  • starvapor
    "Fox News Network's general offensive against president Obama has been paying off:
    according to Carr, ratings are up 20% this year."
    This is verification that Fox New's ratings reflect a 20% increase for their efforts to generate fear of the black president. Fox News and its on-air-Wing-Nut-Loons are openly proud to capitalize on such racism.

    They must also be proud that because of their efforts "The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of anti-government fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency’s overall mission."

    How fucking patriotic of them... Benedict Arnold would be working for them if he was still alive.
  • tom444
    What a crock! When you don't have the facts to support your case, then pound the table -- or scream "racism" as is the case here.

    Only FoxNews has delved into the unbelievably corrupt Acorn -- which the Obama Administration has still refused to defund, And Fox is keeping us informed about the concerted effort to shove ObamaCare down our throats--even though we don't want it.
  • dan
    actually, Bubba, the vast majority DO want it. welcome to eternal political marginalization.

    enjoy your languish because you will never have power again.

    mu-AHH
  • wyrdless
    The link between right wing anti-government groups, for example tea parties, and racism is way over blown.

    Joe Byrne, the author of this article has an axe to grind; next time you read a Raw Story article about racist anti-government people, check the author. It will be Joe Byrne. I have posted on several of his articles to this effect because it is so consistent.

    Anti-government sentiment has to do with excessive government spending and taxation, which has run rampant for the past 30 years since Reagan.

    The Republican party (ie the 50 million republicans in this country) are in the process of ditching the leadership or changing direction of the party away from big government big business country club republicanism.

    Many self identified republicans think 'liberals' are stupid. At the same time, according to the posts I have read, most posters here think 'right wingers' are stupid. The funny thing is that on a lot of the big issues there is a lot of common ground in what reasonable people think on both sides.

    The crux of our problem as a nation is that
    It is the corruption of the leaders on BOTH the right AND left, that has lead us astray; big business lobbies the government, so that it can have more power, then the
    the big corporations write the regulations in their favor so that they don't have to compete in a real free market.

    To show that right and left is meaningless observe the distinction of Hitler as a 'right' and Stalin as 'left'. Is there really a difference? And still observe the difference between Mao and Mother Theresa as two 'leftists', I point at that this distinction is also meaningless.

    With tyranny there is no left and right only a make believe facade of left and right. Our big business big government military industrial complex does not have the distinction of left or right either.

    My answer to this problem is small government, lots of investigations and to vote new and different candidates into office to replace the crooks.
  • dan
    You've been saying the same thing for 40 years while doing what you've just described. But this time you really, really, really mean it, eh?

    Why is it your idyllic capitalist utopias always end up with Democrats rounded up into stadiums for torturing and assassinations; with strong men supported by corporate transnationals, crushing business competition and devastating the middle class?

    That's a rhetorical question. The answer is that anarcho-libertarianism is a fraudulent ideology, perpetuated by think tanks, funded by globalists, to gain populist support for full on, fascist tyranny.
  • wyrdless
    Yes I'm sure you are right

    Think tanks support libertarianism (small government, no foreign wars)
    becasue they want to torture democrats and bring on fascist tyranny

    whatever
  • dan
    Friedman trained "Chicago School" economists were the inspiration and driving economic force behind Pinochet. That's an historical fact.

    All the right wing think tanks with few exceptions support military adventurism.

    Your Ron Paul "Libertarians" are the exception, not the rule when it comes to professed Laissez Faire capitalism. The proponents of "free enterprise" that provide the intellectual impetus for opposing regulation of commerce, spout sweet sounding rhetoric for popular consumption. The end result is always freedom for the heavily capitalized transnationals, and local hyper regulation for smaller, more competitive businesses and individuals. Regulation enhances free enterprise. "Free markets" as practiced, result in fat cats bribing administrations to legislatively suppress competition. It is in fact, restraint of trade.

    Maybe you should unplug the gizmo and look outside the provincial bubble the media, owned by transnational corporations, has created for you.
  • wyrdless
    Well supporting military dictatorships, corporate welfare and hyper
    regulation of business are not "free market" policies. There are a lot of
    liars and frauds in every group for example so called socialist revolutions
    which never really did what socialism espoused.

    Right now the US pretends to be free market but we subsidize tons of stuff
    like High fructose corn syrup and tax everything. My point is that I
    understand that there are a lot of people who say that for example Alan
    Greenspan and Regan were "free market" but I don't think they are right
    because they supported giving money from poor people to rich people through
    credit created by the Federal Reserve.

    I am a Ron Paul type and the whole idea is that government should be small
    and not give away money and attack other countries.

    I haven't had a television for over a decade so why don't you just take a
    chill pill and stop wagging your finger at me. What makes you think that I
    don't know about how the media companies are owned by defense contractors?
  • starvapor
    Two points...

    1. If you took the current "Black" out of the presidency, you could bet your ass and win big in Vegas, that the Tea Parties, Birthers and other associated wing-nut-loons would wash out with the next low tide and just start eating their young.

    2. Voting in new candidates is just a matter of replacing the incumbent crooks with a newer, more unknown set of wanna-be crooks.
  • wyrdless
    1> Tea party activism started before the elections actually and Birthers
    wouldn't exist if Obama published his birth certificate. Your
    colorful phrase about people eating their young was a lamn waste of space
    which conveys little more than how stupid you are.

    2> There is a time delay between when somone gets in office and when they
    becoming totally corrupt. That's why term limits are a good idea.
  • progchris
    Taken them on as an opponent??? How about arresting them all for propaganda and sedition!!!
  • disappointed voter
    Finally, Obama shows a hint of balls. But he has a lot farther to go.
  • Eyeball_Kid
    The Obama Admin. likely has deliberated and done a risk analysis. They probably concluded that the slight short term bump in FNC ratings will be followed by a lessening of credibility for FNC in the medium and long term. This is a policy decision with strategic implications. Have no doubts. They finally figured out that the "opponent" wants to weaken federal government for the benefit of corporatism. That's what Murdoch is all about. It's corporatism that can only thrive with a weakened public arm of governance. Another way to see it is that the Obama Administration is pushing back on creeping fascism. The strength and effectiveness of the push isn't known just yet. It may be the last scream before the democratic republic drowns in a sea of corporatists
  • tacticalgrace
    Fox News is like a super market tabloid. They will do or say anything to sell their sponsors products, in fact one might compare them to little more than vulgar whores in their business practices. For the administration to actively oppose them is to empower them and give them the attention (advertising) they so desperately seek to peddle their products. The administration would do well to simply ignore their antics, just as the public will eventually. Even clowns and whores get tiresome after a while.
  • dan
    I see your point but are you asserting that there is nothing more than a profit incentive at Fox "News" and absolving them of more malign intentions? Has it occurred to you that the first thing a revolution does, is commandeer the media? Do you think that radically destabilizing the most powerful and dangerous nation in human history is more than unwise? The owners of media like Murdoch or Sun Myung Moon represent a global counter-revolution... they are cynics perfectly aware of what they're doing. They would do it for free. They would pay for the privilege of doing it. They are not selling Soap.
  • dave
    karma.
  • dave
    FOX NEWS---"STILL SUCKING GEORGE"S NUTS, and furthering the cause of the mindfucked" AMERCA"S RUIN AT THE EXPENSE OF OUR AGENDA"
  • Fox News is the propaganda arm of the GOP - as such, ad buys on Fox should be counted towards companies maximum political contributions and we need to start identifying Fox's advertisers as supporters of extremists and make decisions about doing business with those advertisers accordingly.
  • America the lost
    Several weeks ago people were complaining Obama was a pussy for not taking these assholes to task. Now he's wrong for doing so???
    Fuck y'all.
  • DCinDC
    Fox News is a propaganda weapon used by the GOP to control President Obama's popularity.
    I wonder what will happen if FOX News would for six months report nothing but positive information about Obama's administration. I wonder?
  • Talis
    LOL. Your hero is drug addict and comedian OxyRush Liarbaugh? The man wouldnt know the truth if it was standing in front of him. RepublicOns are the buffoons of the last 4 decades. Their intent is too destroy this country and turn it into a fascist state. And you are one of the many sheeple who are willingly voting against your own best interests on the way to doom.
  • robertlockwoodmills
    Fox is owned by Murdoch. Murdoch is an Australian right-wing ideologue who uses vast wealth to impose his world view on a foreign country...us, that is. Fox Network isn't news, it's pure propaganda.

    I doubt that Australia would allow a left-wing American to take over one of its media companies and spread Socialistic propaganda from Sydney to Perth. The Obama administration shouldn't get into a spitting contest with Fox, but it should systematically refute every lie and every distortion, one by one.
  • an84u
    Fox Spews is, in my opinion, a conglomerate of colossal, monumental, mind-controlling shitheads whose opinions are dangerous, dishonest, disingenuous and whose talking heads are unwholesome, unpatriotic, and untrustworthy...in toto. I'd hate to think I was so stupid and spineless as to swallow these bastards piddly prattle as the source of any sound information.
  • DCinDC
    FOX News is the main weapon for the GOP's political attack machine.
  • Elim
    Oh, great. That'll cause their ratings to go up even more.
  • turnip
    Fox is just the other side of the coin, . . telling you that 'war is peace'. You can switch to the >other network, which will tell you that 'peace is war', and that the holders of the opposing view are bat-shit crazy. Well, if neither statement is true, and war is war, and peace is peace, both are liars. Both will also sprinkle in a kernel of painful truth in with the bat-shit so that it loses any relativity that it would have if we had a honest free press. We, collectively, are owned. Lefties, righties, whites, blacks, poor welfare recipients, and starbucks yuppies alike. Sooner or later, or not, people will wake up to the social division programing that has us all pointing the finger at the other guy. I'll be alright. There are generations and millions that will not be,
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