It is no coincidence that the recent White House attack on Fox news came when it did. Fox’s aggressive investigations have resulted in the ACORN exclusive, the Van Jones exclusive, and their consistent coverage of the summer Tea Parties was simply too much; dominating cable news as they do, there was simply no one out there who could marginalize them.
Not since Nixon’s “enemies list” has an administration sought to demonize or otherwise attack in such a manner. It demeans the office and ultimately just makes Fox news stronger.
It should be noted that President Obama, who campaigned on a post-partisan line of cooperative politics, has created an enemy at each turn of his legislative agenda. Wall Street, doctors, high-earning small businesses, banks, insurance companies, the list grows daily. I cannot recall any president in my lifetime who so openly and actively made every issue an “us against them” ultimatum. It’s petty.
On the bright side, is was heartening to see today the other television news oulets stick up for Fox when a brief attempt was made to prevent Fox news from interviewing Tresury Department Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg. Fox got the interview and the brief scuffle allowed the non-Fox-viewing public a stronger glimse into this petty battle.
Now that Obama has been in office for ten months, the public is seeing, in many ways and on many levels, that he is clearly not the man who campagined on high ideals and a moral path to political conflict resolution. Instead he continues to reveal himself as a radical, by the people he surrounds himself with, the activist manner in which he tries to gather support and his prediliction for picking fights and finding an enemy, often a straw man.
Finally, the attack against Fox news and the subsequent support lent by other media may reflect a turning point in the biased, pro-Obama coverage we’ve seen to date. It just may be that, thanks to Major Garret, Jake Tapper, and a few others, more journalists will rediscover their job description is journalist, not transcriptionist.
Time will tell.