White House Smart to Out Fox

However biased Fox "News" has been to the Obama administration, there's a near left-right unanimity that it was foolish for them to attack the network, in part because it elevated Fox's ratings and, stretching the metaphor, you don't fight with folks who "buy ink by the barrel."

The CW is wrong. It was smart to explain that Fox is more an arm of the Republican party than a news organization.

First, criticism that it was Nixonian is absurd. No one will be burglarized or audited. One doubts we'll ever hear a recording of Obama later saying, "Remember, the press is the enemy, the press is the enemy."

Second, it's facile and false symmetry to argue that MSNBC has been as anti-Bush as Fox is anti-Obama. When has MSNBC's news reports been as biased as Fox's ad nauseam coverage of the Birthers, tea baggers and crazed town meeting protestors? And when has any other broadcast or cable network actually organized rallies against a sitting president, as Fox unashamedly did with the tea bag protests? As Rachel Maddow alone editorialized, why should Gibbs, Dunne, Emanuel, Axelrod et. al. cooperate with what has been an arm of the opposition party? Did Bush go on Olbermann?

As president of Air America Media, I obviously have no problem with opinion radio or TV. But we and The Nation magazine don't pretend to be "fair and balanced," only interesting and accurate. When Roger Ailes tried to spin me at a Christmas party last year that "We really have both sides on our news," I sort of admired his audacity. But I was also thinking that a gutsy Federal Trade Commission could charge Fox with false and misleading advertising. It's one thing to be almost impressed at his message discipline, but what fool could possibly swallow his talking points whole?

Still, should the White House have made a point of calling out Fox? Yes, because the only way to deter or slow bullies is to stand up to them. Chiding Fox won't convert them into MoveOn members but one doubts they'll organize the next tea bag rally. And others will now more likely flinch before flinging falsehoods realizing that the administration may actually respond to phony attacks. At the least, they won't be able to assume that Obama will invariably turn the other cheek with his post-partisan temperament. Indeed, any politician is in a weak position -- whether in a public debate or a legislative negotiation -- if he has just one register, whether it's always nasty (Giuliani) or always nice (Obama).

By telling the truth about Fox, Cheney et. al., Obama has thrown his more virulent critics off-stride. When a batter knows that the pitcher can throw brush-back pitches, it's harder to dig in and swing away. The squeals we hear from the Far Fright is the sound of those who have to think twice the next time they're tempted to call a President a racist or socialist or fascist or whatever to goose ratings.

A president who took the oath of office on the bible of another lanky Illinoisian could do worse than imitating Lincoln's approach, who was said to have had "an iron fist in a velvet glove."

 

Comments

[not believing]

Sandpiper1 talks about fox misquotes using factcheck.org as a source. What he doesn't say is that factcheck. org is owned by the annenberg foundation which has a deep relationship with bill ayers(weather underground, bill ayers) and our good president. check those facts.

[MThomasNC]

Mr. Green, you are correct and the DC pundits are wrong. This admin had all rights to point out FOX news. They are an arm of the RNC. A blind man can see that or a deaf man can hear it. If you are not right-wing how can you stand to hear their spin 22/7. Shep Smith is not bad. I remember when BushCo would go after NYTs, NBC, MSNBC without any compunction when unfavorable stories were printed about the admin. Hey, that was 2 to 5 years ago - how quickly right-wingers forget. The only way to point this out is to play the video tape of Bush people saying the things they now criticize the Obama admin about doing. FOX cable channel is really a study in hypocrisy.

[anotherSaturdaynight]

I'm old enough to remember when news rooms felt an obligation to relay the story; not spin it. I remember a time when reporters found it imperative to report the truth while never, ever imparting opinion. I can even remember when news agencies employed fact-checkers and people got fired for disseminating false information. Those were the good old days.

[ccoppe]

Thank you, Mark for "bringing it on down" to the members of the MSM who think they are virtuous by defending the indefensible Fox propaganda machine.

[Duppy]

Take them down Dems. Hey, there is nothing wrong with disagreeing with our POTUS but they should just stop the lying

[SteveEbenedicT]

Cite one "lie" from Fox-please link to anything that backs up your claim. I'm willing to bet you can't.

[sandpiper1]

Steve, Google Media Matters or FactCheck to obtain proof. Better yet, subscribe to their daily emails which will keep you updated. I should add they are non partisan and research and publish the documented facts. You do yourself and your country a great disservice listening to Faux Noise.

[tigerakabj]

"You keep lying about me, I'm going to have to tell the truth about you." - Barack Obama

I knew when Obama gave his presidential address that he was going to call out Fox Noise outright sooner or later. The MSM criticized him the same when Obama said to the GOP, "You can't listen to Rush Limbaugh and get anything done." He got that ball rolling and just watched the results: 1. GOP elected officials apologizing to Rush 2. Independents and moderate GOPers flee.

[Liberal Angel]

Excellent post. I'm glad to see this administration acting like it hasn't been castrated and de-fanged. FOX is as much news as it is a vulpine. The administration needs to at least keep the promise to call out those who spin lies, which FOX is. I have NEVER seen on MSNBC the nonsense that can be seen daily on FOX. There is NO parity between what FOX does, and any left-leaning media outlet. The Left is just not anywhere near as crazy as the Right is.

[seawolf77]

Everyone who is a democrat should take the advice of Tyler Durden of Fight Club fame. Go out and start a fight with a conservative. I love what Obama is doing. "When your opponent is angry irritate him." Until his head explodes people. Don;t fall for the republican tricks. Take a step back, ignore their capped and rotting perfect teeth and dyed hair and dweeb wardrobe and concentrate on the facts. They are all on your side, When they start yelling start laughing at them. When they say "ANSWER THE QUESTION!" with all the authority of a 3rd grade school teacher stick your tongue out at them and say nah nah nah nah nah.

[ephoenix5]

I agree with you. The white house was smart in calling out Fox News. We all knew they were never fair and much less balanced, but now that the white house has made the accusation and the rest of the bloggers (and Olberman and Maddow are running with it) have compiled the factual evidence that their news coverage is not just slanted, but it is fabricated on falsehoods -- they can scream and throw a tantrum all they want and wimpy CNN can run to its side with a tissue, but the damage is done. Fox has been branded by the U.S. Government as unfair coverage -- not real news -- as spouting conservative talking points regardless of the truth. Sure, Obama is taking blistering heat, but the heat will subside in a few weeks once a new hot topic emerges (the media is fickle), but the image of Fox has been tarnished forever -- Fox has been unmasked. Obama clearly outfoxed Fox (with the truth).

[KoolBreez]

We object to the "balancing" of news. Anyone doing the balancing is distorting it.

Why haven't any TV journalists done a segment on Fox "News" yet? Oh, we don't have any TV journalists other than Jon Stewart.

[Neal Jansons]

Nobody except the MSM seems to think the White House was wrong to call them out. This is a manufactured scandal if I ever heard of one.

Maybe this is the problem with having like 3 companies own the whole MSM, huh? You think?

[iyamchazz]

The air heads at Fox will never think twice about what they do.
They believe they are on a roll and do take themselves too seriously.

[WilliamBradford]

If Fox News has lied about anything, why can't the administration just list them out and refute them. That has not happened. When you can't prove that someone is lying, but you don't like what they are saying, you behave like a child and call them names.

For the majority of Americans, this is obvious evidence that the Obama administration is desperate. They don't like being questioned because they don't have very good answers. That's a bad sign.

[Neal Jansons]

They have. It's too many words for the target audience. Too many issues. They had to make the message clear and simple for everyone to hear it.

[WilliamBradford]

A classic elitist response. "You can't understand why what I'm saying is true, so you'll just have to trust me. It's complicated, but we are only doing what's right for you. Trust me. I really can't be expected to explain myself to someone like you. Just be quiet and trust me."

[ZenBastard]

http://foxnewsboycott.com/tag/lies/

There. It's a list of lies that Fox News has promoted as truths.

[WilliamBradford]

Since you already believe these things, it's probably futile to point out that many of these are matters of opinion or interpretation. The worst conclusion that can be reached about Fox in most of these cases is that they misspoke or that they asked a valid question that makes you uncomfortable. Almost all of these concern the opinion shows, not the news.

[ZenBastard]

Well, are you going to go read the list of Fox lies & try & refute them or are you going to do what your kind usually does when confronted with the truth, WilliamBradford? Just ignore it & hope it goes away.

[seawolf77]

Why so you can jerk our chains and laugh at us. No thnks. Been there , done that.

[creolechild]

Again, here are some examples for you. Each sentence represents a story. The full details can be read by clicking the link at the bottom.

Beck falsely claimed Anita Dunn "worships" "her hero" Mao Zedong.

Fox hosts falsely claimed that Kevin Jennings covered up sexual assault.

Fox News ran with San Bernardino ACORN video without needed fact check.

"Death book" distortions abound on Fox News Sunday.

Beck claimed Van Jones was a "convicted felon."

Fox trumpets CAIR conspiracy theory charges made by author with anti-Islam history.

Fox host Hill asked if the Obamas' fist bump was a "terrorist fist jab."

Fox & Friends recited misleading GOP press release on stimulus.

Fox & Friends spent segment reading from RNC press release, touting GOP plan "looking out for the health of" seniors.

Fox News' Hemmer "[kept] track of the stimulus money" -- by lifting research from GOP website.

America's Newsroom pushed discredited GOP calculation of Obama's cap-and-trade proposal.

Cut and paste: "FOXfact[s]" about GOP budget nearly identical to GOP Rep. Ryan's op-ed.

Cut and paste: "FOXfact[s]" about GOP budget nearly identical to GOP Rep. Ryan's op-ed.

Fox News doctored Biden quote to falsely claim he was praising economy in March.

Happening Now cropped clips of Obama to promote "another apology tour."

http://mediamatters.org/research/200910240004

[Policon]

Beck falsely claimed Anita Dunn "worships" "her hero" Mao Zedong.

Fox hosts falsely claimed that Kevin Jennings covered up sexual assault.

So Anita Dunn never said that Mao was one of her favorite philosophers? Or did Fox just photoshop the whole entire video?

And the whole Jennings issue was based on the FACT that Jennings himself thought the kid was 15 and not 16.

And as for Van Jones, I don't know if he was a felon, but he is quoted as saying he had jail time experience. Fox News quotes Van Jones for what he says, and they're branded racists.

[supertim]

"The squeals we hear from the Far Fright is the sound of those who have to think twice the next time they're tempted to call a President a racist or socialist or fascist or whatever to goose ratings."

great point mark, what worried me most was that the MSM especially the NY Times and WaPo were going to follow the lead of fox news and actually implied that they had been remiss in ignoring stories emanating out of that RNC mouthpiece, and i suspect this worried the white house as well hence the outing of faux noise

[Charmed]

Nice article.