Fighting Words: Fox News Lashes Back At White House

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Fighting Words: Fox News Lashes Back At White House
Rachel Slajda | October 12, 2009, 4:21PM

Fox News lashed back at the White House for calling the cable channel "a wing of the Republican Party," releasing a statement calling the remarks "self-serving."

"It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part," said Michael Clemente, a senior vice president at Fox News.

It was an interesting choice of phrase: Earlier today, a White House spokeswoman called a report released by the insurance industry "self-serving." The report claims health care reform would increase premiums.

On Sunday, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn went after Fox News, saying, "Let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is," and describing Fox as President Obama's "opposition."

Read more: http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/fighting-words-fox-news-lashes-back-at-white-house.php?ref=fpb

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Would FOX exist without advertising sponsors?

How much would it be to buy Fox out?

[rhett o rick]

15. You must be kidding. Their side has enough money to lose millions and still hold on.

What Faux does is worth hundreds of billions to CorpAmerica. And who would put up the money to buy them out? Not any rich liberals. It is class war. We can't out "buy" the wealthy.

[donco6]

2. Wow. She really said that with a straight face and everything.

"It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming."

LOL! Right.

[olegramps]

32. Opinion Programing is another name for Propaganda.

[shadowknows69]

3. Kick them out of the press corp.

[Bolo Boffin]

4. The White House is RECOGNIZING that they are opinion programming.

That's the point, silly Foxs News person.

[Skittles]

5. oh FUCK OFF, Clemente

you're a damned rightwing whore working for a rightwing hack "news" station and EVERYONE FUCKING KNOWS IT

[Libertas1776]

6. They really

have to do as much as possible to get the other networks (CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC etc) on their side, and totally isolate Faux News. Let Faux go on the defensive and attack each and every one of those networks who will in turn group together and strike back as one collective Fuck You! to Faux. We can only hope.

[eShirl]

7. When did they start calling themselves Fox Opinion Programming Channel?

[wellst0nev0ter]

8. Uh, Just A Point Of Contention With The Moderators

Even though this article came from a blog, it does belong on the Late Breaking News forum since TPM does serve as a news gathering organization with paid reporters and everything. Could anyone forget how they broke their series of stories of how Gonzo politicized the Justice Department just a few years ago? And as far as I can see, it didn't violate the six-hour rule of that forum either.

[obliviously]

16. So thats why I'm imagining that I'm Reading this

I actually haven't found it!

[ohheckyeah]

9. Wrong.

The White House distinguishes just fine, it's Fox that doesn't seem to get the difference.

[John Kerry VonErich]

10. If Fox News is wanting for a war......

They'll get one.

[AsahinaKimi]

11. self delete

double posted..

[AsahinaKimi]

12. Maybe the President of the United States should

suggest the IRS to give them a little Audit..
:shrug:
Just sayin





Yeah, I really hate these guys...

[Malikshah]

13. Personally-- the racketeering that is Fox business practice is bizaare to me.

The ratings issue--

Fox ratings are night and day with their "competitors"--

All I hear, however, are anecdotes (mine included) of Doctors'/Dentists' offices with Fox being the only choice--the same holds true for Auto Service Waiting room TVs and the like.

My question is, has their ever been a real study of the ratings and correlation if any with the "only Fox" TVs that seem to be ubiquitous around the nation?

There must be truly objective media studies out there somewhere-- I'd love to see the results whatever they say (i.e., Fox really is the most willingly watched new station/it's a rigged system/etc.)

[Johonny]

14. well think of it this way, if their ratings were really that good

would all those advertisers really have left the Glenn Beck show? How many products can the same loyal viewers and empty rooms buy? Apparently not enough. Faux ratings are good but ad people seem to get that they're not all that they are hyped up to be. At least for selling product.

[rhett o rick]

17. A lot of advertising money is paid to the media, not for selling products but keeping the reporting

favorable. For example, when Exxon give a network millions in advertising, are they selling the Exxon product? No way. They are buying favorable reporting. No reports on bad oil spills, no investigative reporting on price fixing, etc.

[Malikshah]

33. To clarify-- I'm not concerned with the advertising (i.e. the content issue), but rather the

"hardware" issue-- TVs where Fox is the only channel-- businesses with Fox on the TV alone... what's with that?

[dmr]

18. Yes, Fox, it does seem self-serving on your part! n/t

[Mimosa]

19. Obama & aides risk looking paranoid, ala Nixon on this

Certain elements of this post I borrowed from Nicky at the Speakeasy, who I met here nearly 2 years ago. He campaigned hard for Obama. Many stalwart independents, progressives and centrist Democrats watch and have watched Fox News for many years. I have. Their production values are superiour, their on air talents are more entertaining. I also respect and like Shep Smith. I try to watch CNN but it fails to hold my interest and their attempts to carry water for any Dem administration in office have been as obvious as some of Fox's attempts to promote Republican talking points.

Whoever in Obama's administration has decided to 'punish' Fox News has decided to cut off and even insult at least 25 million steady Fox viewers. DUMB STRATEGY.


Obama and aides have not handled Fox well from day 1. The Nation sees it more accurately than most DUers. Read this:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/483551/whiner_in_chief

Excerpt:
The Obama administration really needs to get over itself.

First, the president and his aides go to war with Fox News because the network maintains a generally anti-Obama slant.

Then, an anonymous administration aide attacks bloggers for failing to maintain a sufficiently pro-Obama slant.

These are not disconnected developments.

An administration that won the White House with an almost always on-message campaign and generally friendly coverage from old and new media is now frustrated by its inability to control the debate and get the coverage it wants.

But before the president and his inner circle go all Spiro Agnew on us, they might want to consider three fundamental facts regarding relations between the executive branch and the fourth estate:

1. Since the founding of the republic, media outlets (the founders dismissed them as "damnable periodicals") have been partisan.

White House communications director Anita Dunn was not exactly breaking news when she told CNN's "Reliable Sources" that Fox was neither fair nor balanced. "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," grumbled Dunn. "They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."

Fox hosts do go overboard in their savaging of Obama and the Democrats -- sometimes ridiculously so. But their assaults on the president are gentle when compared with the battering that Benjamin Franklin Bache's Philadelphia Aurora administered to John Adams (appropriately) or the trashing that Colonel McCormick's Chicago Tribune gave Franklin Roosevelt (inappropriately).

To suggest that Fox is not a news network simply because Sean Hannity echoes RNC talking points would be like suggesting that the Aurora was not a newspaper because it took cues from Tom Jefferson or that the Tribune was not a legitimate member of the fourth estate because it was sweet on Alf Landon.

2. Presidents are supposed to rise above their own partisanship and engage with a wide range of media -- even outlets that are hard on their administrations.

In fact, presidents should go out of their way to accept invites from media that can be expected to poke, prod and pester them. The willingness to take the hits suggests that a commander-in-chief is not afraid to engage with his critics. It also reminds presidents, who tend to be cloistered, that there are a lot of Americans who get their information from sources that do not buy what the White House press office is selling.

When Dick Cheney kept giving "exclusive" interviews to Fox "personalities," there were those of us who ridiculed both the personalities and the former vice president for going through the ridiculous exercise of lobbing softballs and swinging at them.

Obama should be better than Cheney. But aides are not helping the president prevail in what ought to be an easy competition....

..........That is such a radically wrong response that it calls into question the whole communications strategy of an administration that has somehow managed to take a man who was elected with a mandate and lodge him in a corner where there are now serious questions about whether a Democratic president and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress can enact basic elements of the Democratic agenda.

[JDPriestly]

21. Fox News is partisan and silly. You are making a fool of yourself

by admitting you find the Fox newscasters attractive. Fox and its friends are misinterpreting what was said. The White House has not said that Obama will not appear on Fox. They said that when he does appear on Fox, he does it knowing that Fox is not on his side. There is a huge difference. Of course, misinterpreting what Obama and other liberals say is the same old, same old that we expect from Fox. They are a Republican news media. That is what they are. They do not pretend to be anything else -- except when confronted with the fact that a Republican news media is what they are. They only get huffy about it when called on it. They do not have one genuinely pro-Obama person on their team. They had lots of pro-Bush people on their team.

Has any Fox staff commentator ever admitted that our troops found no, absolutely no WMDS in Iraq other than the materials that had long been under UN supervision?

[Mimosa]

23. Following your advice won't help Obama. Namecalling isn't what mature people do.

JDPriestly: "Has any Fox staff commentator ever admitted that our troops found no, absolutely no WMDS in Iraq other than the materials that had long been under UN supervision?"

Yes. Several times. If you watched Fox you'd know it occurred more than once. And includes several reporters.

Secondly, JDPriestly, did I say I found any Fox personalities "attractive"? I said their on-air talents are more "entertaining".

I watch both CNN and Fox and have for many years. I know the shortcomings of both. My point remains that in order for Obama to succeed he cannot continue to be increasingly perceived as the leftwing president. He has to fight the perception. It's real. People who voted for him once may not again. And they can deliver a Republican congress for the 2010 elections. It happened to Clinton. I guess you think Obama is immune? *LOL!*

Obama has to really act as president and an advocate for all Americans, despite party orientation. He once presented himself that way and it got him to the White House. No he's listening to aides who appear to have ideological axes to grind. They will hurt Obama. My friend Nicky predicted Obama will be most hurt by those who are trying to help him.

[JDPriestly]

28. I don't watch CNN or Fox. I get the news from the internet and pick and choose

which specific reports I want to watch. I read the rest -- including in foreign newspapers -- for balance. Our news reporters are in general an ignorant bunch.

[Skittles]

30. CORRECT

OMG, someone on DU singing the praises of Fox News :puke:

[Bandit]

34. Actually I trust Obama's wisdom on this issue more than Fox's or yours.

Obama is not stupid and does not need schooling by you or the Nation. He tells it like it is when it comes to Fox News. He has not said he will not go on Fox News. He has said when he does, he goes on knowing it is to be facing the opposition Party. Yes there are at least forty five million Republicans in America, and Obama will speak to them but he is wise enough to know they oppose him.

[Mimosa]

36. Obama's wise enough to be a one term president?

Fox's overall regular viewership are about 45 million people and they are not all Republicans or conservatives. The people who swing elections one way or the other are 'in the persuadable middle.' I thought anybody who followed politics knows this has been true in all presidential elections. Thus there were Reagan Democrats who later elected Bill Clinton.

Obama didn't used to ignore the persuadable middle whose votes helped push him over the top. You would have him go back on his campaign pledge to be everybody's president. That is a recipe for 2012 disaster.

[Skittles]

29. LOL

hoo boy :rofl:

[Triana]

20. It's apparent that the White House CAN distinguish between news and opinion programming

and Fux Nuisance is opinion programming. Leave it to Fux Nuisance to broadcast the OPPOSITE of the truth. They always do.

The White House is Right.

[Mimosa]

22. Triana, Fox News has 25-45 million steady viewers, not all wingnut Beck fans

It just isn't smart to ignore Fox viewers. Obama and his spokespeople should be able to talk to the journalists on Fox including Chris wallace, Shep Smith, Major Garrett, Britt Hume. Fox is not all opinion feature shows.

The administration needs to communicate its messages regularly to all of the public. It's not sound strategy to basically say 'we think you're stupid and beneath talking to.' What swings elections are the persuadable swing voters. If Obama doesn't get the message, if the economy doesn't get better, he could be a one term president.

[Orsino]

38. The White House has it backward.

The Republican Party is a division of NewsCorp, if anything.

[bluestateguy]

24. Their White House press pass can be taken away

Keep it up. Just keep it up.

[Mimosa]

25. Are you joking?

Fox has 45 million regular viewers. The Communications office yanks their press pass? First off that won't happen. Assuming a parallel universe in which it did, even progressives would then compare Obama to Hugo Chavez, Castro and Qaddaffi.

[bluestateguy]

27. Not at all

Fox is free to report the news however they wish, even to lie. That's the 1st Amendment.

A press pass and access to the White House briefing room, seats on Air Force One, etc., those are privileges, not constitutional rights, and they can be taken away on a whim.

We all have the right to free speech. What we do not have is the vested right to front row access to people in power.

And Fox's alleged 45 million viewers are lost non-Obama voters and non-persuadables who we don't need to be wasting our time with.

[Skittles]

31. 45 million?

in your fucking dreams

[Mimosa]

37. That is the cumulative figure and is not viewers for any one show

But Fox has the highest regular viewers. More people are watching any one Fox News program at any time than all other cable news shows put together. I have a friend who works in media and ratings as related to advertising. The facts may distress you.

It is foolish to claim all the viewers who like Fox and regard it as their 'source' for news are Republicans. Those conservative Democrats who need to be won will be offended at being ignored, if nobody from the Democratic Party or the administration reaches out to them.

Scoff if you will. Maybe all the people you know are yellow dog Democrats. Obama can wind up like Jimmy Carter, as somebody whose heart was in the right place but couldn't gain the trust of the public at large.

[Rex]

26. Well it is true, Foxnews makes shit up.

And they hate Dems or liberals or anyone that is for progressive ideals.

[Javaman]

35. "releasing a statement calling the remarks "self-serving."

one could say that by faux news responding with such angry comment, is equally self serving. Considering we have a Democrat as a President.