I think he promised to stand out against naked partisanship. This is an example of that. He's actually following through. You've already been shamed multiple times in this thread on not only your initial post, but almost everything you've mentioned since. Reading this thread is like watching the little boy try and play basketball against his older brother and the older brother's friends. He just gets pummeled, when they bother to let him actually be involved in the play at all.
Overreact much? I am a libertarian, so I am probably more objective than you are. I don't have a horse in this race. I am not calling for her resignation. I don't give a rats ass. If I was in charge, I would not want someone who says something that stupid to be my communications director. Plus she seems to be the one that started the attack Fox campaign, which is also dumb. She is the interim communications director. Lets see if Obama circles the wagons and keeps her, or finds another communications director. I'm betting on the later.
At the same time you run the risk of sounding like Spiro Agnew ranting about the "Nattering Nabovs of Negatism". Every admin. has a prickly relationship with the press and while yes Fox is more partisan than what we have seen before historically there is risk of a backlash of an Admin. running a public campaign against a media outlet. Frankly actions like this strike me as things you would see Hugo Chavez or the PRC doing and they have used strikingly similar languange to justify going after news services. Like it or not our country was founded with the value of a free press and while some services might abuse that freedom I don't think its in the interest of our government to be going after that press even if they are partisan hacks.
I think it would be better to just ignore them. The Admin. taking on Fox News gives them a legitimacy as a threat to the Admin and also allows them to play the victim card. For all of the craziness out of them, Tea Parties and etc.. I don't think that represents any sort of major challenge to the Admin. unless the Admin. lets it be. A public campaign against Fox gaurentess though that Fox becomes an issue rather than diminishing it.
Personally, I don't either. I would vote for Ron Paul for president over anyone else in the country. The thing is, calling for this woman's resignation over quoting Mao and Mother Theresa at a high school commencement is overreaction of the first order. The last administration's officials went on news shows to hype up the case that Saddam had WMDs, that we KNEW it without doubt or question, and that it was a "slam dunk." Not only did they not have to resign, Condi Rice was given a promotion (to SoS in Bush's second term), Cheney continued to enjoy all the power he had when he made the statements, Rumsfeld didn't resign until YEARS later, and Tenet was given a freaking Medal of Freedom. I'm not the one who is "overreact[ing]." You may not personally be calling for a resignation, but you are defending the people who are. Faux "News" needs to be attacked, they have gotten away with lies, distortions, and marketing the republican brand for years, they need to be taken to the mat for it.
First of all, I agree wrong move. However their supposed excuse is that Fox is distorting independent voters' thoughts.
I heard a commentator speculate that the admins real objective might be to further brand Fox as the voice of the GOP. Just as they played up the "Rush is the leader of the Republicans" and therefore infer that the crazies (the Becks Rushs and their ilk) represent what the Republicans stand for. The Republicans tried this previously with Moveon and Michael Moore, but we weren't quite as insatiable for daily soundbites and blog filler then. Plus the Democrats, at that time, weren't as dire as the Republicans are today.
I don't think the Administration is the ideal entity to take FoxNews to the mat, if they deserve to be. They should allow some proxies to fight that battle. They expose themselves to more propaganda attacks by doing this. They can freeze out Fox reporters and do other passive-aggressive stuff to punish the network, but coming out and denouncing them opens them up to ridicule.
First, that phrase was written by William Safire, who, along with other Repub speechwriters like Pat Buchanan, played the part of Fox News before Fox News existed. Second, there's a difference between Agnew saying that phrase because his nuts are in the fire with investigations and the Obama administration going after Fox because they are currently the most powerful arm of the Republican Party. There's a huge, huge difference between the Nixon administration going to court to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers and the Obama calling out Fox for making crap up. Fox is not on some scale of more or less partisan. Fox is absolutely partisan. The majority of Americans see that and the Fox viewers are never going to vote for Obama anyway, so where is the political risk? Fox can't be any more anti-Obama and anti-Dem. As I stated earlier, I think the political calculus is sound and if you're going to do it, now is the time. They shot their wad with the tea parties (which have had little lasting effect), Beck is increasingly crazy, and they have a history of becoming more strident when challenged. Isolate them, marginalize them, and let them stew in their own juices. If the Obama team pulls this off with even a marginal degree of success it is a brilliant move. And really, you're dropping Chavez's name? Please. We're talking about a news network founded by a Reagan official, a network that agitates against Dems regardless of the merit, a network that spews crazy filth about Dems regardless of the truth and you want to compare the Obama administration saying "Hey, they're really an arm of the GOP" with Chavez? Yes, we have a right and tradition of a free press. But like freedom of speech, it doesn't mean you get to say anything and have people automatically accept it. Part of that freedom is the ability of others to call BS. And of course, one could argue that just because Fox News claims they are media or press or a news organization it doesn't make it so. Freedom of the press, I would suggest, does not apply here. Freedom of speech, yes, absolutely... in which case false statements must be countered with the truth... which is what the Obama administration is doing.
True Agnew suffered from an actual threat from the media's reporting. The current Admin. doesn't suffer such a threat, unless they make it an issue. Publically taking on Fox news shows that they actually are concerned about what Fox News is saying. I agree with you a lot of it is crap but at that point should the Admin. being taken on every media source spewing crap? On the other hand though it might make give Fox and its commentators proof that they are being victimized by the Admin. This is a quote from another poster in a different thread: This is exactly the reason why its bad idea to go after Fox news because it gives those who are ideologically inclined to support Fox the idea that Fox is actually a challenge to the Admin. and on par as a voice of the people to the Admin. since the Admin is going after them. Consider Ghandi's quote how the evolution of a movement progresses. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you and then you win." The problem with attacking Fox News is that you are acknowledging that they are of importance enough to be attacked. Fox News isn't that important. And the some of the news services that Chavez went after were funded by his political opponents that still didn't stop him from looking petty. Sure people have the freedome to call BS but at the sametime you have to consider who is doing so. The bully pulpit of the Presidency is very powerful and anytime the Admin. publically comments on something that issue becomes important. By taking on Fox News the Presidency is making them more of an issue and rather than marginalizing their BS are guarenteeing that it gets discussed more.
You're missing the point though... they're not really taking on Fox as much as they are trying to distinguish between Fox and other networks and media. The goal is to prevent other media from taking Fox semi-seriously and running with the manufactured stories Fox uses to attack Dems. If they can successfully paint Fox as an arm of the GOP (which they are), it makes it harder for other news sources to run with stories that originate on Fox without at least undergoing some fact-checking... which ideally means few Fox stories would get play beyond Fox and their associated bloggers because so many are factually challenged. The goal is not to crush Fox and wipe them from the Earth... the goal is to isolate them and make it easier for folks to relate to them as a propaganda arm and not a news org.
Look at all of you… fighting with one another, ya all sound like a bunch of neo-nazis jew haters and those so far to the right you believe every conspiracy theory out on the web- you’re gonna shoot yourself in the foot hiding in the closet when you think they are coming to get you. We all need to work at different levels to shine the light on the cockroaches and destroy them. Let me mentioned Gary Allen’s “None Dare Call it a Conspiracy”, that small little book opened my eyes. Before I was blind until that book opened my eyes and led me to where I am now, more informed and more aware, recommended if you haven’t read it yet. Over the years it’s all come to fruition for the most part I can remember him Leonard Horowitz talking about the Pandemic Flu Bill of 2005 and how legislation passed then would fall into place sometime in the near future. And now, here we are, right on schedule with the government pushing for mandatory vaccinations with live DNA vaccines just as Leonard said they would, using law enforcement and the military, as everyone back then said IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN IN AMERICA. But here we are and they were not nuts!!! Yeah it sounded crazy then, even horrifyingly unpatriotic to even speak it, but here we are. Think about what I am saying. Many examples of history and human nature when tyrants get a grip on society, that and there are documents like Kissinger’s Memorandum #200 written as far back as the 1970’s outlining where we are headed using food and resources as a strategic weapon. So when the CO2 footprint tax arrives, those that understand already know how this will be played, as we watch it all unfold right on Q and fully backed by just the right powers that be. That is, there are no coincidences or surprises when the field goalie steps onto the ball field. It’s all a known game to those that understand the objective. There is so much information out there from CFR documents and things like the Georgia Guidestones, the sponsors of such like Rockerfeller and many others, that there really is no denying the path we are on. The problem is, this awareness is psychologically foreign to the American psychee largely due to what’s left out of mainstream news, left out of public education and is therfore outside of the awareness of most US citizens. The people have intentionally been misled and most everything is denied and obfuscated to keep everyone in a false paradigm. Learning all of this untold history and the dynamics of the hidden players and what’s actually going on, is like learning the rules of a new sport, say football, baseball, or boxing for example. Once you tune into it, and it can be hard work at first, like learning how to invest and save for retirement, there are many things that begin to become obvious. And, the more experience you have with it, the better one’s understanding becomes. None of us claims to have a crystal ball or be a guru, but we have come to clearly recognize certain things at the track, like the biggest horse can’t run very fast and short legs are not good betting odds to win. None of it is rocket sceince, but if you don’t know about it, it goes right over your head, whether or not you like or dislike the messeger. We are clearly headed for Martial Law by design, because the FEW EMPOWERED want it that way, which is in total conflict with our Constitution & Bill of Rights, our US legal Justice System, the oath to office and our military oath to serve, not to mention the requirements of being a US citizen that’s politically active and for good reason! This has been happening for years and now it’s on our doorstep. Now how did that happen??? It happened because that’s how the game is historically played if one understands push & shove politics and agendas that are under the control of a select and empowered few. Call it a type of political goal line in a game that has remained undisclosed to the masses, AS WORLD HISTORY HAS PROVED, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. As we go into entropy as a nation, how many times does civilization have to play the game, where all roads lead to Rome, there are no exit ramps AND 8 BALL IN THE CORNER POCKET – THE PEOPLE LOSE EVERYTHING? None of us enjoys the muck raking and the horrors of all of this, but if we as a people are to avert this age old rotten game, the only solution is to learn the game and the rules and FIGHT HARD TO HOLD THE GOAL LINE FROM BEING CROSSED BY THE OPPONENT. If we lose this life and death game, we lose our freedom and it’s really that simple, BOTTOM LINE & END GAME Don’t trust any main stream media source, trust but verify. There is always a man behind the curtain when it comes to politics, the media, business etc. Not only can you feel it in your bones, when the corrupt mass media start turning up the heat on their Propaganda Machine. You know another False Flag is just around the corner. Rockefeller’s bill (S 778) has been sitting in committee since February. Since the Health bill and Cap and Trade have been stalled – the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 is also stalled. Brace yourselves everyone, the pin will be pulled before the end of this year. We have the corrupt Climate Change Treaty coming up in a few weeks which Obama will commit the most TREASONIST act ever portrayed on the American people by signing away.
What? The closest thing to history pointing to what you are talkinf about is the gap between the wealthy and the poor.
So? Fox commentators are smart enough to realize what's going on. Some (or most) of their viewers may think they are being victimized or that Fox is a challenger to the admin, but none of those people are voting Dem anytime soon, so again, what's the political risk? First, comparing the Fox business model to Ghandi's movement is a stretch even for a limber Judo practioner such as yourself. Ghandi never said anything close to this... Yes, that was the founder of Fox, Roger Ailes.
