Seriously. When David Carr of the New York Times decides to write a piece about the Obama Administration taking on the lies and general right-wing bullshit being pumped out on a daily basis by non-news entity Fox News, he should have forgotten past history. He should have been looking at recent history for a glimse into what is really going down here in these United States of America.
The Battle Between the White House and Fox News
The Obama administration, which would seem to have its hands full with a two-front war in Iraq and Afghanistan, opened up a third front last week, this time with Fox News.
Carr's opening salvo should be properly mocked for the trite and ignorant tripe that it is. The administration opened a third war front last week by going after Fox News for being, more than anything, disingenious in their lies and obsfucation towards all things Democrat, Liberal, Progressive, or American.
First of all, just stating that there is a new war front with a group of well paid, platinum bleached and scripted actresses and actors is a serious slap in the face of those REAL American troops fighting in real wars against real enemies. No, Mr. Carr. Not made up sound bite enemies. Real ones. That shoot EVEN before Glenn Beck goads them into doing so.
Until this point, the conflict had been mostly a one-sided affair, with Fox News hosts promoting tax day "tea parties" that focused protest on the new president, and more recently bringing down the presidential adviser Van Jones through rugged coverage that caught the administration, and other news organizations, off guard. During the health care debate, Fox News has put a megaphone to opponents, some of whom have advanced far-fetched theories about the impact of reform. And even farther out on the edge, the network’s most visible star of the moment, Glenn Beck, has said the president has "a deep-seated hatred for white people."
One sided conflict? Really? Mr. Carr seems to think that if Faux News just lies and bullshits and cheerleads Americans to stand up against their President, whom their big star says has "a deep-seated hatred for white people," that they should be allowed to go forward with that. Not called on it. Not made to defend the lies. You know why? Get ready to laugh your ass off.
snip
We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent," Anita Dunn, the White House communications director, said in an interview with The New York Times. "As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave."
Ah, but pretending has traditionally been a valuable part of the presidential playbook. Smiling and wearing beige even under the most withering news media assault is not only good manners, but also has generally been good politics. While there is undoubtedly a visceral thrill in finally setting out after your antagonists, the history of administrations that have successfully taken on the media and won is shorter than this sentence.
Not that they haven’t tried. In his second Inaugural Address, Ulysses S. Grant said he had "been the subject of abuse and slander scarcely ever equaled in political history." President William McKinley labeled a gathering of the press a "congress of inventors," and President Franklin D. Roosevelt assigned less favored press members to his "Dunce Club." Sometimes the strategy worked — or caused no lasting damage. McKinley, like Grant, was elected to a second term. Roosevelt also won a third and fourth.
My bolding
From what we've learned here, David Carr is telling us that the previous administrations in past history that have taken on the media, or in Faux News' case, the bullshitainment industry, have lost. Well, except for the whole second and forth terms for Mckinley, Grant and Roosevelt.
The ignorance of this piece of, er, journalism is quite telling.
Faux News? Please don't throw President Obama into that briar patch!
I'm proud of the administration and the President for taking down these leeches and liars. The more they confront them, the more Americans will hear the story of what, why and how. When reality is on your side, with spin and lies being all the other side has, you go for sunlight.
Go, Mr. Obama! Show them for what they are! We'll be right there with you, laughing at their inane attempts to look professional! Looks like a winner to me, Sir.
xposted at http://progressiveblue.com/