Obama: Change the Channel

"An elite corps of impudent snobs" who are "hopeless, hysterical, hypochondriacs of history" and "nattering nabobs of negativism" said former Vice-President Spiro Agnew about the media in the United States when he served under President Richard Nixon.

And, going back to the press in the days of Thomas Jefferson there were many scurrilous comments about the candidates and politicians that were vitriolic from newspapers who were known for being completely biased in their views.

So having a biased press in the United States and having high ranking politicians and government leaders complain about the press is nothing new at all in the history of American politics.

When the Obama administration complains about a biased media and in particular FOX News they, of course, have a valid point. The "fair and balanced" network is known for its right of center positions. And MSNBC is known for its biased views on the left side of the political equation.

I am teaching a graduate course this semester entitled "The Media and Presidential Politics" at Johns Hopkins Graduate School of Government. Looking at presidents from JFK through George W. Bush there has always been criticism of the media and charges of bias in the press.

LBJ used to watch his three television screens at night and if he didn't like one of the stories would call up the head of that particular network and complain. George W. Bush was known to comment on the liberal bias of the New York Times during his tenure in office. So, why the huge uproar over the Obama administration's attacks on Fox News? It is not really a major news story. Fox News is biased -- we all know that. No White House staff likes to be criticized so they attack the media -- end of story.

However, it seems like the White House is picking a strange fight at the moment. Fox News under Rupert Murdoch is not going to change their views and opinions. Out of the total population very few Americans watch Fox News or even much news on any television network.

It is rather odd to pick this fight with Fox News. All it does is elevate their commentators and anchors to a level that people might tune in to see what all the fuss is about. Why in the world would the White House want to give this network any publicity at all?

If the president is trying to appeal to his base and win support for these criticisms it is also a rather useless ploy. Saying Fox News is biased is not a new revelation to anyone on the left and if it is then these people need to get out more.

I was on a talk show twenty years ago and the conservative guest was yelling at me for watching Dan Rather on CBS News because he thought Rather was way too liberal and was misleading the country with his views. I would tell the Obama administration the same thing I told this person when I was on the talk show. I told him to turn off CBS News by turning off his television set and take his young sons bowling.

There is nothing written in the Constitution or anywhere in the law that anyone has to watch any television channel or TV show. If you don't like a particular news channel don't watch it or better yet don't even turn on your television set.

This is a non-news story and the White House would be wise to move onto more serious issues like the approaching 10% unemployment figure coming soon and what to do in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and the Middle East -- not to mention health care. If and when the president finds solutions to all these serious problems of the day we will congratulate him and we can be certain that Fox News will have the opposite point of view.

So move on, Obama White House, and forget about Fox News.

Change the channel!

Follow Robert Guttman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cpfr

Comments

[onenvrnos]

http://www.relfe.com/media_can_legally_lie.html

Fox "news" does not represent free speech. Free speech does not provide for an Ailes' owned network to advance a certain agenda that provokes violence and tears this country apart. It does not provide for a network to use its status to promote tea parties and encourage a division in this country that brings it close to a civil war. It does not provide free speech based on LIES that some Americans believe is the truth. It is UNBELIEVABLE to me that other networks are defending Fox...or is it really unbelievable, considering that all the msm are liars. Regardless, this just signifies the depth of the United States' problems. LIE to the American public and and get the golden seal of approval.This represents far more than merely changing the channel. Disgusting.

[bbmill37]

Correction, Mr. Guttman. It was William Safire, speechwriter for Spiro Agnew, who coined the phrase "nattering nabobs of negativism."

[not one of the sheep]

Thank you, Thank you , Thank you! A true voice of reason. This incessant whining from the White House will prove nothing other than they are a bunch crybabies. Ignore Fox and move on like the man says. It's a lose, lose situation for the White House. Focus on the tasks at hand like Health care reform, the war in Afganistan and Iraq and the spiraling econony.

[Saldana]

Guttman misses the point, and in a rather dramatic way. The point is not to change Fox News, nor to point out to the public that Fox is biased. The point is to get the rest of the news media to acknowledge that Fox is biased, has an agenda, and is pushing that agenda, and to stop treating it as if it were a legitimate news operation. It is not news. Everyone knows it. It is the self-proclaimed voice of the opposition. Obama, his administration and everyone else pointing out that the emperor wears no clothes here are not trying to change Fox, enlighten anyone, or anything else that Guttman suggests is the case. They are simply saying to the rest of the media, 'We are not going to play along with the fantasy. Fox is not news, and we will not treat it as such."

[DevonTexas]

I think it's part of a red herring effort on the part of the WH. They throw these out now and then to distract the Fox-types from what's really going on. It seems to be effective. I commend them in their efforts.

[Json]

Have you completely forgotten Kerry in 2004??
A democrat being attacked with lies from a right-wing source. He chose to ignore it, figuring that no one would believe such nonsense. He thought the GOP wouldn't try to attack a war veteran while their guy could barely show up for the air national guard duty.
Unlike many of the people who are urging Obama not to make a big deal out of FOX news, Obama remembered the swift-boaters. As a result he made the decision to hit back a bit.
I think this was a smart move! Now that he has framed the debate in this way, FOX is undergoing more scrutiny and fact-checking by other news organizations.
I wish FOX was a credible source of news, but since they are not, we need to be aware of that and take that into account when judging the quality of information coming from them.

[SEQUOIABISON]

Candidate Dukakis was also told to ignore the Willie Horton ads put together by Roger Ailes, campaign manager at the time for papa Bush.

The White House should not ignore distortions and outright lies about the news and the Obama policies, that would be tantamount to an admission that they were true.

I am from the school of thinking that one should always stand up to bullies and confront them with the lies they are spewing in order to advance their own big biz agenda. They are simply propagandists for the republican party, while there is nothing wrong with that their mission should be exposed.

[Kevin Ehsani]

what many people arent comprehending about this complaint about fox news by the obama WH is that they have a problem with the fact that fox news states lies and falsehoods about EVERYTHING president obama does. everything heallthcare, to the economy, to afghanistan, etc. biased is fine, we all know the media is biased one way or another, but when you are making up lies and baseless claims, you need to be called out on it. fox news has all the right to be the wing of the republican party, but lying about the other side is just deceitful and ruins the true nature of journalism and reporting. maybe that is what the white house was not more clear about... they should point out the lies that fox news tells instead of just stating they are biased. that is obvious to everyone, but many people dont know fox news lies... in fact, they believe their lies.

[dsteamer]

MSNBC tells lies all the time but the libs continue to take everything they say as truth, check the rating if FOX is as bad as you say why are their ratings better than everyone else?

[DevonTexas]

I would be interested to view your cites of the "lies" told by MSNBC. Perhaps you could do some research and expose them? They seem very diligent in their efforts to be "fair and balanced" unlike other so-called "news" channels.

[Saldana]

So your measure of quality is based on popularity? So by your standards, William Hung is a good singer, because he sold a bunch of records.

Let's apply that logic to a more salient point here. Conservatives think the network news, CNN and MSNBC all have a liberal bias, right? So let's put the ratings of all of them together and compare them to Fox News' ratings.

In prime time, Fox News Channel averages about 2 million viewers. On an average night, ABC news gets about 5.5 million viewers, and CBS gets about 5 million. NBC News gets nearly 8 million. MSNBC pulls in about 750k in prime time, while CNN gets 1.1 million.

So doing a little quick math, (and don't let the science part of this scare you), that comes down to about 20 million viewers of liberal news every night. that's a 10:1 ratio.

So, by your logic, liberalism is ten times better than conservatism.

How does it feel to have your failure proven to you using your own means?

[Greg Petty]

Everybody likes good comedy

[nomobull]

what if the channel had been changed on the McCarthy hearings:especially during the the Joseph Welch remarks. How many more lives would he have been allowed to ruin with his misguided communism witch hunt.

[Indon]

I would ask, what if Obama isn't doing this for his own sake?

What if Obama looks at Fox, and other extreme right-wing sources, and sees a substantial segment of our population trapped in a hopeless feedback loop of emotional self-reinforcement that prevents them from contributing meaningfully to America's government, leading them down a path of increasingly less realistic ideas and appropriate behavior, and wants to take action to help them?

And what if he feels he needs to deal with with a media industry that promotes that feedback machine as if it were legitimate news, and one which even feeds back into an impression in the general populace that, somehow, the views of Fox were even remotely worth considering and that somehow reality were a "compromise" between the absurd views of Fox, and everyone else?

Fox is not Obama's problem. Fox is America's problem. And it's good to see Obama addressing that problem, however minor a gesture he may be limited to as President.

At least, that's what I see could be happening. It might not really be like that at all.

[Allannde]

My reaction is to agree with this article.

However, I, also, have a "what if" question.

What if the President DID ignore Fox. Would we be criticizing him for his failure to call out the lies and bias?

I tend to think that there is great power in ignoring, but Fox is in the business of taunting and teasing in the hopes of getting under the skin of the President. And they will claim loudly that he is being unfair if he ignores them. Further, the President will look "weak" to some if he doesn't call out the teasing and taunting.

It seems like a no win situation for the President.

Sometimes this is called "the weakness of power".

[Indon]

That would make for a hilarious Fox story:

"Some are saying that Obama is a coward for not calling Fox News out on incredibly biased reporting. Your thoughts, Straw Liberal?"

"I agree with you, Obama is a coward for not rightfully telling you off. You utterly lack integrity as an organization and Obama needs to 'man up' and tell the American public that he won't put up with you anymore."

"Well, you heard it here - liberals hate Obama."