Obama's Sunday Morning Message to the Fox Network and Chris Wallace: "Oh You Can Dance, Allright, Just Not at My Party"

President Barack Obama went on a media blitz Sunday morning, doing five consecutive, brilliantly choreographed interviews on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and Univision, while snubbing the Fox Network's "Fox News Sunday" with host Chris Wallace. This is the same Fox Broadcasting Network that chose to air the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" instead of Obama's health-care-reform speech September 9th. What goes around, comes around, huh?

Seems Wallace didn't take the snub lightly, whining to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Friday evening about the Obama administration, which apparently has gotten under his not-so-thick skin:

"They are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington. They constantly are on the phone, or emailing me complaining, well, you had this guest. Or you did this thing. I mean, they are working the umps all the time. I think it works for the others. It doesn't work with me."

Normally, Wallace does a decent job of containing his partisan leanings, but I guess this rejection was simply too large for the ego to ignore publicly. It's understandable, and to be expected, for various Fox personalities to lash out at Obama and Democrats. But for Wallace to imply that the Obama team is any tougher on the media than, say, the Bush administration, is an absolute joke. No one controlled the message and the audience better than Karl Rove; no president spoke less to the media, or derided them when he did, more than Dubya; and no administration operated under a bigger veil of secrecy than the Bushies. I guess for Wallace, it just seems worse when you're no longer at the head of the table.

So here's my advice to Wallace: next time the president of the United States of America gives a prime time address to a joint session of Congress on a critical issue, ya might want to convince the execs to run it instead of some mindless reality show. Then maybe when Obama throws another party you'll get invited. The truth is, Obama didn't need the right-wing fanatics to win the election, and he certainly doesn't need them to pass health care or push through any other of his critical domestic or foreign policies (he just needs some cajones). If these folks, and the Fox Network, wish to marginalize themselves and extract themselves from the debate, that's their choice. Obama's message to them Sunday morning was clear: I don't need you either.

Comments

[jw]

07:13 AM on 09/22/2009

Maybe Obama would visit Wallace's program if Wallace were a journalist and Fox had any real news programs.

[hipichick7]

07:16 PM on 09/21/2009

Sounds to me as if Chris Wallace and FAUX news are the 'crybabies'.

[chimark]

06:54 PM on 09/21/2009

They need to use those votes ,push through their agenda , and prove to everyone that he is right. He does not need Fox or anyone else. The voters will decide if he is right in 2010.

[Sanity01]

06:36 PM on 09/21/2009

I know that I am not nearly as smart as the people in charge of making these decisions, but..... This seems like a blatant case of the president preaching to the choir. The polls indicate that FOX news has a large following of viewers who don't agree with the President's policies. It would seem to me that these are the people whose minds he wants to change. I can pretty much assure you that they didn't turn away from FOX to watch his appearance on other networks. He was more interested in punishing the only network that doesn't bow and scrape than he was in changing minds. It may have gotten under the network's skin but I doubt that any of the viewers were crying over the snub.

[bigfated]

06:58 AM on 09/22/2009

Tell me sanity01, how do you get through to people who's minds are closed and refuse to be open to anything bu the rantings of the so-called "news" people at Fox? It's best to ignore the ignorant rabble.

[Sanity01]

09:54 AM on 09/22/2009

Ignoring them is certainly one approach to changing their minds but I doubt it's going to be a very effective one. I am someone who has depended on NBC all my life (60 yrs) for my news. I still watch it until I can't stomach it's bias and then turn to FOX. Nothing infuriates me more than a major news source like NBC ignoring legitimate news stories for some stupid interview with Sara Palin's daughter's ex-fiance just so NBC can have another shot at Palin. This is not news. It's a highschool drop-out trashing someone as retribution. Why should I (or anyone else) care what this guy has to say. It's obviously going to be biased, as is NBC for airing it. FOX has ASTOUNDING ratings! Whether you care to admit it or not, all of their viewers can't be right-wing crazies. Truth be known, they are probably a lot more mainstream than most HUFFPO readers.

[scotia626]

07:03 AM on 09/22/2009

the "minds" you refer to are not changeable. they are set in concrete. like any organism ill-equipped for the world they live in, they will die out with time.