What the Fox!?
“The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. And it is not ideological… what I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party.”“Obviously [the President] will go on Fox because he engages with ideological opponents. He has done that before and he will do it again… when he goes on Fox he understands he is not going on it as a news network at this point. He is going on it to debate the opposition.”
“[Fox is] widely viewed as a part of the Republican Party: take their talking points and put them on the air, take their opposition research and put it on the air. And that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news organization like CNN is.”
Well, there you go. That’s the extent of the comments from the White House. Where does Anita Dunn say that the White House is planning to take Fox News off the air? Was it when she said that the President will go on the network again because he likes to engage with ideological opponents?
Can you find anywhere in Anita Dunn’s comments where she talked about how the white house was paying liberal editorial writers to write favorable opinion pieces about White House policy positions, like how the Bush White House paid Armstrong Williams and others to trump up his No-Child Left Behind education bill?
Where in Anita Dunn’s comments does she talk about about how the White House was paying fake news reporters and gay escorts to ask soft ball questions during daily White House Briefings and Press Conferences, like how the Bush White house paid Jeff Gannon, employed by the “just-for-Jeff-Gannon’s-credentials” fake virtual news agency Talon news, which of course no longer exists.
And does anyone remember a Bush Press Secretary named Tony Snow? Has that name been erased from everyone’s memory over there at Fox News? Well, aside from the fact Tony Snow has since passed away from cancer and how forgetting his name would fall in line with Fox New’s ideological stance on health care, because obviously Tony Snow didn’t pull himself up by his own bootstraps enough, Tony Snow was the host of “Fox News Sunday” and substitute fill-in for Bill O’Reilly’s radio show before the Bush White House snapped him up to be the White House Press Secretary in April 2006. Just curious, did anyone hear Anita Dunn mention when the White House would be hiring liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow to be Obama’s new White House Press Secretary?
Did anyone notice if Anita Dunn mentioned that the White House would be spending millions to organize and facilitate massive protests across the nation in protest of Fox News? Not that Fox News would ever spend millions organizing nation-wide astro-turf tea party protests against paying taxes at a rate still remaining since the last president before Obama passed them into law, which were even at a lower tax rate than what taxes were under Reagan. Except that’s exactly what they did.
Fox News frequently aired segments encouraging viewers to get involved with “tea party” protests across the country on their channel. They provided attendance numbers, protest dates, locations and website URLs. Fox News’s own website had also posted information and publicity material for protests. Fox News hosts repeatedly encouraged viewers to join them at several April 15 protests that they were attending and covering. In addition, Fox News has also aired numerous interviews with protest organizers in the build up to the protests. No, Anita Dunn didn’t mention anything quite at that level, although she did say the White House viewed Fox News as the political arm of the Republican party. Huh.
So, please Fox News cry babies, STFU! You made your bed and now its time to go sleep in it. Trying to call out the White House for calling you what you are, and saying they are fine with that, but nevertheless it is what it is, just drips with hypocrisy. Calling the President Stalin and Chairman Mao is beyond ridiculous, especially since it took the Bush White House “forever” to finally completely blacklist MSNBC according to Fox News hosts during the last 2 years of the Bush presidency.
In defense, Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente struck back at the White House after Dunn’s remark saying, “It’s astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part.” Fox went on to define its news hours as 9am-4pm & 6-8pm, of course time slots which exclude Cavuto, O’Reilly, Fox & Friends crew, Glenn Beck, Greta Van Susteren, and Sean Hannity from the news category and leave a bunch of people nobody’s ever heard of.
But if the above examples aren’t enough for you then I’ll let Jon Stewart further explore the hypocrisy of Fox News’s inability to call the kettle black. To be fair, Stewart even skewers the White House as well, for not claiming MSNBC is also biased.
Media | Fox News | hypocrisy | tea-baggers
