Obama On White House War With Fox News: I'm Not Losing Sleep Over It (VIDEO)

The White House's war with Fox News, which Jason Linkins has helpfully mapped out here and here, took a new, (and perhaps final?), turn Wednesday night. During an exclusive NBC interview, Obama declared he was not "losing a lot of sleep" over it.

The president is asked whether it's appropriate for him to be "working the umps", to say "what is or is not a news organization." Obama's response:

"I think what our advisers have simply said is that we are going to take the media as it comes, and if media is operating, basically as a talk radio format, then, that's one thing, and if it is operating as a news outlet, then that's another, but it's not something I'm losing a lot of sleep over."

Comments

[CabaretArtist]

Andrew Sullivan said it best today on Chris Matthews Show ... President Obama is "letting them destroy themselves..."


WH insists Gibbs DID NOT APOLOGIZE

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/white-house-insists-gibbs-didnt-apologize-to-fox.php#more

[Miss Ann Thrope]

While FOX definitely has a right-wing bias it is dangerous when an administration picks and chooses who to cater to. We also musn't forget that if this were a right-wing administration refusing to speak with MSNBC most of you would be decrying that decision.

Don't kid yourselves. There is no such thing as objective, unbiased news coverage in America, on ANY of the networks. The whole "left/right war" that is perpetrated by the mainstream media and the Republicans and Democrats only serves to distract the American people from important issues, like how the banks and the Federal Reserve are driving your country to bankruptcy.

Stop kidding yourselves in to believing that you're rooting for a team that cares about you. The liberal/co­­nservativ­e construct is meaningless. We are all INDIVIDUALS with our own ideas on different things which span the entire spectrum of liberal-to­­-conserva­t­ive viewpoints.

Your "us versus them" mentality is misdirected. It should not be "Reps versus Dems", your focus should be on "The very-small­­-elite-gr­o­up-that-­ru­n-thing­s versus the rest of US"!

[notfoolinganyone]

what a cry baby......bush NEVER cried about MSNBC and the other liberal outlets...this obama guy is a farce....the whole chicago bunch is a farce.....these politics wont work on normal americans

[logologic]

Actually - they will work on normal Americans. Normal Americans recognize that Fox new programming is indeed an obvious wing of Republican propaganda. (Who founded it?)

Most Americans do not watch it, perhaps for that very reason.

The recent Mr. Bush made so many mistakes... were they ever highlighted, or even mentioned, on Fox? Most Americans recognize that Fox is just a visual representation of Rush Limbaugh talking points. And you, sir, are in the (thank God) minority of Americans for giving it any kind of credit or value.

[IcedTee63]

Waaaaaaaah...With FAUX News you have two Comedy Channels. Chris Wallace, Shepard Smith and Greta are (as much as I hate to admit) legitimate News Personalities. The rest are pretty much Clowns!

[imsosure]

Can you believe it another story about, Fox? Wow, this is so interesting. This is the sort of real news I need to know.

[Keith52]

WWWOOOOOOWWWW Greta reeeeeeallly got him on THAT one whoooooweeeeeeee!

Yikes. Greta's set up was soooo, LLOOOOK WHAT I HAVE FOR YOOOOU HERE FOLKS OOOOHHHH MAN WAIT TILL YOU SEEEE THIS FOLKS!!!

And Obama was alll yaaaaawwwwwnnn, um I'm not interested and not losing sleep over this.

WHOOOOWE! SSNAP! Gre-ttaahhh. (Yawwwn)

[bogues]

I recall during the last campaign that then candidate Obama did a sit down interview with Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly advertised it as and EXSCLUSIVE interview even though Mr. Obama was doing similar interviews with the other networks as well. I watched O'Reilly's show when he aired the Obama interview. Bill chopped the interview into little pieces and fed it to his audience over a three night period. At the beginning of each show he would show a very few minutes of the actual interview and then O'Reilly and company would spend the rest of the hour giving their opinion of what Obama said, rather than just letting the audience hear it and make up their own minds. FOX has been treating President Obama this way from the beginning.

[uvymopka]

Yep....FOX even squealed on Obama about Van Jones and ACORN. It’s hard to look presidential when someone is pointing out your incompetence.

[neocon666]

So why did Fox "News" have it's head up George W. Bush's posterior for 8 years? There's nothing he ever did that they didn't praise as genius. I especially loved the special they ran at end of his term where they claimed that he delivered "some of the most eloquest speeches by a president ever".

And what does ACORN have to do with president Obama? They're a criminal outfit now because someone in an office talked to a yuppie in a 1970s blaxploitation outfit?

[vince7]

That particular interview was setup by Murdock. During the campaign Obama had ignored Fox because of the propaganda. I don't think that Obama has forgotten the end result. I hope he has their Whitehouse press passes pulled.

[hercster]

FOX and "news" should never be used in the same sentence. FOX is the open sewer of the media world.
It should be restricted to black and white 12 inch monitors at the beginning of the checkout lines of low end grocery outlets. However, I do agree that Obama and company should stop judging all things FOX and leave that to a jury of their peers let's say the National Inquirer and similar rags. That and give them 1000 card board megaphones to be used in parks and small town city squares where they can meet more of their peers. When I see FOX on the TV of restaurants and similar I know not to trust the food and walk out. FOX appeals to those with closed minds or defective ones. Just keep them away from our children. Either that or put them in the same spot as the Saturday cartoon shows and the kids will tune them out.

[gs-425]

Not loosing sleep...really? Why then do you have your TOP administration officials working day and night isolating and attacking anyone (ie FOX and talk radio) who dares to question you? WHY did you attempt to have FOX banned from the White House press pool yesterday? And WHY Sir, are you mentioning this during this interview.

You bet he's loosing sleep over it....you betcha.

[postman66]

No one attempted to have Fox banned from the WH press room, where do you guys get this stuff? The WHH is pointing out how Fox opinion makers bullchit is b leeding over into real news.

[gs-425]

Yes we make it up as we go:

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2009/10/unreal-white-house-bans-fox-news-from-press-pool-interview-video/

[bigbluenat4]

Why should the President care, NONE of the Faux viewers got him elected, WE DID. Why should he give an opinion network any time? They lied about him before he was president, they lie about him now. Rethug whining is just sad. Almost as sad as Glenn Blech.

[lmb421]

Dosadi, you seem to have quite an obsession with mops, and the misguided impression that we should be doing the president's job. When he's done partying on my dime, I'll be glad to "help out".

[Dark Sphere]

Obama's anti.cs demonstrate to all how immature he really is. One news organization (Fox) is challenging him with tough questions, and he doesn't like it.

Can you imagine if Reagan, Bush 1 or 2 acted in this way? First, they'd have to ban ABC, CBS, NBC, LA Time, NY Times, Wash Post, etc...

All news outlets (99%) are against republicans; while only one, Fox News, challenges Obama, and he has a fit. Whining is not presidential.

[luke150]

It's one thing to challenge, it's complete another thing to repeat again and again on every commentary show accusations, innuendos, half-truths. Without even being a professional, I can easily refute 90% of FOX's claims regarding Obama - even if the White House does the same it won't matter because what drives audience is controversy, not factuality. FOX News is a great business machine ran by a master businessman - Murdock. You can't win large audiences with 24 hours of objectively delivered news so logically Murdock has embraced a much more lucrative model - the commentary/talk show format which attracts extremely partisan and loyal viewership. If you believe FOX News is an actual news channel, that in my view is beyond naive.

[gs-425]

refute away.

[greymom]

I am old enough to remember statements from a previous white house calling out the "effete intellectual snobs" back in the 70's.

[Chip W]

Fox News pretends that asking tough questions is what they're doing. It's not.

[AnotherTry]

There is no fact in your comment.

[MissVirginiaVoter]

Fox News does not challenge.­....callin­g someone a commi and Nazi EVERYDAY is laughable!

[merger]

Good, Mr. President. Please, lose some sleep over Afghanistan/Iraq. I know the parents of the kids that serve in these two wars never have a restful night.

[Loveforlife]

Have a good night all.

[Loveforlife]

Fox news has not been affected by this. They are doing just fine. Obama isn't aware of Fox like he isn't aware of his baby Acorn.

[Outofnowhere]

Naw, they're not woth losing sleep over. Despite all the ranting, the GOP still doesn't have a candidate to put up against him in 2012 that you don't laugh at at the mere mention of his/her name.

[spacecreep]

president obama would have never mentioned fox news, if they had kept their political commentary with the cable networks... but fox takes the lie and distortions of hannity, beck and o'rielly and incorporate them in their regular channel news as actually truthful news items..... no other channel does this.... no matter what keith or rachael says at night, you won't find the regular nbc morning news repeating word for word the next morning what they said as if it's a news item.......take away the attacks on obama and their would be absolutely nothing on the fox news shows..... maybe a few car chases, talk about american idol winners, or a few national enquirer items.... fox will be doing the same thing with their local news channel against all democrats in the coming local election... they had to be called out......

[Loveforlife]

Have you heard the President's comments during his campaign about Fox news. It has been going on for quite a while actually.

[Loveforlife]

If you don't think they are a contender. Why are we having this conversation?