Obama's Snipe at Fox Aids and Abets the Network

It was almost Sarah Palin, then it was talk show gasser Rush Limbaugh, and now it's the Fox Network. President Obama's seemingly obsessive need to devote one second of time and mention to attacking his arch enemies reminds me of those cop and robber movies where the bad guys pull off the perfect heist. They snatch millions and then instead of taking the money and running they start squabbling among themselves over who gets what, or who doesn't like whom. That's their undoing.

President Obama's plate groans with Iran, health care, the financial crisis, the cap and trade battle, the surge in hate violence, and yet he gets himself worked up over of all things the Fox Network. And believe me, the Fox crew love every minute of it. There's good reason for that. When Obama and the Democrats took the ill-fated step and made Limbaugh their punching bag, the Media Research Center found that the top talk show gabber's ratings went through the roof. Radio affiliates that carry Limbaugh's syndicated show were in ecstasy with what they called the "dramatic surge" in the show's ratings. No one was more giddy at the Obama attack than Limbaugh. He milked it for all it was worth and hasn't stopped.

No matter what the topic Limbaugh harangues on, he slides in a reference to Obama's prop up of him as the Democrat's prize whipping boy. This further coronates him as the defacto mouthpiece for the GOP, further sets in stone GOP opposition to anything that Obama and the Democrats came up with, and gives the legions that thrive on Limbaugh's anti-Obama bile, more fodder to pound him on the airwaves, in chat rooms, websites, and even more despicably in race baiting cartoons, emails, Facebook and twitter posts.

Now there's Obama's Fox smack down. Fox almost certainly will steal a page from Limbaugh and turn Obama's attacks into a ratings bonaza playbook. In fact, even before Obama dignified their drumbeat attacks on him with an angry word about the cable station, Fox did just that.

According to Neilson Media Research for the first quarter in 2009, Fox trampled CNN in the ratings. In every news and talk show category, it was the runaway cable leader. It had its third best quarter ever in the ratings. In all, it was the second-most-watched network in primetime (USA was first). CNN ranked a distant 17th and MSNBC and even more distant 24th. In news coverage, the gap between Fox and MSNBC, sometimes erroneously mistaken for the Obama cheerleader station, was even more embarrassing. Fox News was the 5th and MSNBC the 28th most watched. The Obama broadside won't do anything to damp down Fox's big numbers.

The rub is that Obama knows that it's always a lose-lose to get down and dirty with an attacker. When Republican rival John McCain plopped Sarah Palin on the ticket, some Team Obama members instantly went negative on her. Obama wisely and quickly stopped that dead in its tracks. He issued a perfunctory complimentary word of congratulations on the Palin VP pick and then promptly zipped the official campaign lip on her. His opponent was McCain not Palin, and he kept the focus and the heat on him.

Fox will be Fox. It will continue to crusade against anything and everything he proposes. Obama's snipe at the network won't do anything to change that. It will only shove Fox's ratings upward. And the president certainly has better things to do than to aid and abet Fox.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard weekly in Los Angeles Fridays on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and live streamed nationally on ktym.com

Comments

[WorkingClass]

It costs Obama nothing to snipe at Fox. So why not remind America that "fair and balanced" is a lie.

[dino213aa]

How unfortunately true. Although my observation has been that most of Fox's audience is made up of aging "dittoheads" who aren't too firmly stationed in reality or a pulse for that matter. I had hoped Obama would play his cards a bit wiser than that.

It's frightening how many people watch Fox and drink the Kool-Aid without a bit of hesitation or inquiry.

I guess liberals just watch less TV? If so, they're certainly smarter in that regard. But it would also explain Fox's numbers.

[nellpost]

You are wrong. SOME of them may be won over by President Obama's sense of humor and irony, based in intelligence...

oh, wait, that is TOO much to hope for.

[ColdRockAmerica]

Sir, wow, with all due respect, the time for turning a blind eye to what fox has done not only to this country, but to journalism in general is way past gone. For all the huff-posts and media matters out there, he continues to not only manipulate (albeit a willful manipulation in most cases) his fellow American for his own sick emotional needs, but he has graduated to inciting racism and violence! And people like you stand by and pretend if we ignore it, it will go away. Unfortunately, because of the blatant ineffectiveness of journalism to protect itself, the President has been forced to step in. As you rightly state, the network will continue to prosper in the foreseeable future, so why shouldn't good Americans, the President included, not step up? I am glad he did. And in closing, if you don't understand the effect the gelding of journalism in this country, and the subsequent rise of tabloid/propaganda news had on the Iraq situation and just about
every other important issue, well good luck with the blind eye theory...

[debrief]

Best post ever almost!

[Scribe57]

Let's ask President Kerry about the wisdom of not responding to attacks.

[debrief]

Second best post ever almost!

[erinm]

I hardly think Obama is "worked up" over Fox. He was replying to a comment that the media never criticizes him. Clearly not true, and Fox with its 24-7 anti-Obama campaign is a perfect and glaring example.... tell me you wouldn't have cited them too. As to the better Fox's rating, it's no surprise they are up after a heated campaign, and after their candidate lost. But I find it meaningless... when you compare their ratings against the other choices combined.... one partisian, Republican network that competes against no other network for their specific audience, against all the other more truly blanced networks that compete against one another, it's a stupid apples to oranges comparison.

[ObamanextPresident]

Excellent points. Thank you.

[debrief]

Regarding Fox ratings, I have never seen anyone posit that it is attributable to the fact that they have a total monoply on the d.u.m.b in this country. Methinks the more diverse and thinking population of this nation, avails themselves of a wealth of options for information gathering, thus deluted ratings are not surprising.

[bogues]

FOX NEWS and the rest of the right-wing media have and will continue to insult the President and put our country in danger in the process. They are only patriotic when they are in control of the government if they aren't, patriotism be damned. President Obama should treat FOX the same way he does every other news source and not be intimidated by the nasty way they treat him.

[alwqb]

Obama calling out Fox will NOT boost their ratings. That is the most stupid comment out of this entire article. The "Gunsmoke" crowd will always be there, but there won't be any new takers.

Obama was stating fact that he has a whole network dedicating themselves to destroying him and his presidency. You lost Republicans, now show your patriotism to our president like you called the rest of us treasonous for not supporting Bush. Bush won and he proclaimed a mandate. Well, President Obama has a mandate. You voted and you lost for a reason.

[scottinsd]

Well put.