White House: Fox is 'opinion journalism masquerading as news'
(CNN) - The Obama White House is ramping up its offensive against Fox News.
This summer, President Obama signaled his unhappiness with the network. "We've got one television station entirely devoted to attacking my administration."
Over the past month, that discontent has translated into an all-out war against Fox. Last month, Obama notably skipped a sitdown with Fox as he plugged his health care bill in one-on-one interviews on every other major news network. Earlier this month, the White House published a rare blog post directly attacking a news organization, slamming Fox for its "disregard for the facts" and pointing readers to an independent fact-checking organization that had debunked "more Fox lies."
Now, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn is questioning whether Fox is in the news business at all. "It's opinion journalism masquerading as news," she told Time of the news network, in an interview released Thursday. Dunn also made it clear this won't be the last White House blast aimed at the network: "They are boosting their audience. But that doesn't mean we are going to sit back."
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They have every other station and paper in their back pockets and they are whining about ONE?
Wow. I guess they have everything else under control then – recession, unemployment, Afghanistan, China, North Korea, etc – if they have time to get upset with the only channel that has the chutzpah to question them.
Don't just love the mentality and sheer audicity of neo-cons.
They defend Fox as "fair and balanced" despite numerous independent studies that have showed it is, by far, the most biased new station.
But they SCREAM about the rest of the media – again, despite the fact that those same studies show the opposite to be true
I remember at least twice that Fox, while covering a breaking story on scandals related to two politicians – Mark Foley and John Ensign – and displayed ech of their names with (D) after them as Fox's cameras showed them on their perp walks.
Both Foley and Ensign are republicans.
Spin, neo-cons, SPIN!
A network can be critical of the President as long as they don't bill themselves as a news network. The White House has it right - Fox produces opinion journalism. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
What Obama can't stand is Fox airs a lot of facts that they don't want out. Like Van Jones and ACORN and all his creepy radical czars and radical friends from the past and present. Every president has to deal with those who disagree. Every news channel had plenty of voices who disagreed with Bush. The truth is Fox is the only source for conservatives to go to out side of Lou Dobbs on CNN to hear like minded individuals. If you want to hear the liberal point of view, you can pick out any news channel out side of Fox. If the other channels gave more air time to conservative analyists, they would get more conservative viewers.
You can take away Fox News. But conservatives would still be opposed to Obama's out of control spending, huge deficits, cap and trade, health care reform that has a pubic option and huge price tag, his indecision on Afghanistan and on and on. I don't need to watch Fox News to know where I stand on the issues.
Fox News is purely entertainment for the deluded and for right-wingers (oop, that's redundant); it is NOT journalism of any kind.
Fox doesn't report biased news. They have biased programming. There is a huge difference. I can't believe the morons of this country can't get that simple truth.
The left has CNN, NBC, Washington Post, etc etc etc, who lean left. Fox's programming leans right.
Because there is only one choice for "right wing" news, Fox is destroying the other networks in viewership.
Both sides spew their hate. Both sides are equally responsible for the decline in journalism.
CNN and Fox both do a pretty good job but they both have one sided people. MSNBC and the entire night staff is on the White House payroll. They wouldn't know the truth if it hit them in the face. Keith Olberliar is one of the most disgusting people to be on the airwaves, just like Rosie O.
Not including FOX the media for the most part has given Obama a free ride.
We need to take down Fox. This is the biggest threat by far to our future.
Go to the website of colorofchange.org and sign up for the petition againt the loon Beck
i must say that if you are DUMB enough to believe Fox Noise then I truely feel sorry for you! Some light googling, which anyone can do, of the "facts" you hear from Fox will show you how FALSE their "facts" really are! I pray for all of you who really believe Fox...it's so sad! Do your own research...just because their run by Right-wing republicans doesn't mean they're accurate! USE YOUR BRAIN PEOPLE!!!!
Some have pointed out that being critical is good. I agree.
But what FOX news does is either misquote facts or plainly lie. That is bad.
It's kind of pathetic for the White House to attack anyone who criticizes them. It's even sadder that there's only one network to attack.
Those guys are just crazy, Sean Hannity, bill o'reilly
i can't believe they call themselves Journalist.......
Sweet! It's about time the Admistration called Cluster Fox what it REALLY is! All Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and all the rest of those bums are interested in is lining their pockets on the backs of all of you FOOLS who watch them.!
Fox sure does present stories that have facts AND video to support them. Van Jones, ACORN, Obama's lies and lies and lies and lies and lies and lies.
Nothing wrong with criticizing the prez. It's the opinion peices, cherry picking or omitting facts and outright repeating of baseless rumors that get me. Just for once, I'd like to see them do real journalism and fact check everything and present it in an unbiased manner. They can't do it, though. It's just not in them. Yes, MSNBC and the like are just as bad. I gave up watching American news long ago. BBC does a much better job of being somewhat objective. Have a nice day!
On a serious note....the media in general dropped the ball when it came HCR.
It took them 2 months to finally call out the lies, to discredit Betsy (they're trying to kill grandma) McCaughey, for KO to make a compelling and personal Special Comment, to call them what they are LIARS!
But now, Billo and Sheperd at Fox are supporting the PO.
Go figure.
I have refused to watch Fox ....... Hannity, Beck and the likes of these racist people are not giving the news they are just pushing Hate and lies.......I will never watch Fox.......
As an Obama democrat, I find it pathetic that the Communications director can't communicate better with all the media. The obvious problem for the white house is that they feel that their message is not getting through, and then it is called politics or bias. So ms. dunn will spin to the others and attack fox. Some national message, why can't we get the same message distributed to everyone.
Fox plays to its "Christian" conservative audience. To be fair MSNBC is the other extreme. With 24 hour news cycles it is difficult to find real news vs opinion on any station. News should be reported without opinion being interjected. However, those days are long gone.
Wow, if Obama would focus this energy on the REAL WAR we have in Iraq and Afghanistan, maybe we would actually WIN. WHO CARES ABOUT FOX NEWS???!!!!!!!! More saddened by Obama every single day. SHAME ON YOU OBAMA – SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN ARE DYING WHILE YOU WORRY ABOUT SOME LAME NETWORK NEWS.
Cnn fess up your just as BAD as Fox DIRT News, your TOTAL IN BED WITH Fox News, that why have them in your Headlines, we are not as DUMB as you REALLY ARE. ASK LOU DOBBS . and Bill Bennett , i dare you PRINT THIS COMMENT........
Unbelievable how GOPers can whine 24/7 about the "biased, liberal media" but when liberals complain about the obviously right-wing-talking-point-machine known as Fox "News" (man it hurts to type those two words together) they get their tighty whities in a bunch.
Which is more probable:
1. ALL the news organizations out there EXCEPT Fox is biased, or
2. The majority of the news organizations are neutral and Fox is biased.
Logic tells me that it's more likely that one network is biased, rather than all being biased, but logic doesn't seem like something that comes into play much for viewers of Dubya's favorite station.
GOOD.
Everyone's known for years that there is no actual journalism going on at the FOX Infotainment Channel. FOX apologists are always mentioning how FOX's ratings are better than CNN's, but what they never mention is how study after study finds that FOX viewers are consistently among the most misinformed Americans (on Al Queda and WMD's during the Bush years, on Death Panels and health care these days).
That's the ultimate condemnation of FOX News's "journalism" – the more you watch it, the less you know.
It's about time the white house do something about the hatred and bigotry FOX news sprew about the president, I've been tired of it.