White House Official Fox News A Wing of the Republican Party

[hungrybrownbear]

I understand the White House position completely, Jack, and moreover, I think you're misquoting them.

My understanding is that they believe that Fox News "is not a news organization, but a network devoted to opinion". I agree completely.

Who said anything about the White House trying to censor them in any way? The White House, it seems to me, is simply expressing an opinion—an opinion with which most of us wholeheartedly agree.

This whole outrage on the part of the Republicans is the biggest Straw Man argument I think I've ever seen.

sneaky sneaky! So apparently the Democratic opinion is the only opinion that is bipartisan and important.

:3

 

[hungrybrownbear]

Hungry, you are missing the point.

The White House is merely expressing an opinion; they're not trying to censor Fox.

If George W. Bush had made the same comment about MSNBC, I, despite being a Democrat, would agree with him. The thing is, MSNBC doesn't pretend to be unbiased, unlike Fox, who pretends to be "fair and balanced."

(Gosh, people actually believe the tripe about Fox being fair and balanced, but to be fair, some people still believe the moon landing was actually contrived in a Hollywood studio.)

Fox News is a wing of the Republican Party? Then every other news outlet is a wing of the Democratic Party then right? You really think media outlets are "balanced and fair"? lmao. Media outlets are gatekeepers, if they have the ability to focus on whatever they want to, if they have a choice in shaping public opinion, if they have the power to make different topics more important than others, they sure as hell ain't going to unbiased.

"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up, sleepies. We must go, yeeees, we must go at once. "

 

[NickCole]

The White House is merely expressing an opinion; they're not trying to censor Fox.

No ObamaCo is not merely expressing an opinion:

A day after White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said other journalists should no longer treat Fox as a bona fide news outlet, the comments generated only a single, tangential question at the White House’s daily briefing for reporters.

Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod are very powerful men. This is not an opinion they're expressing, this is an attempt to marginalize Fox News and censor what Fox reports by bullying other news organizations into not reporting on it.

And whether or not you or anybody else approves of what Fox reports, the truth is it DOES report. The most obvious example is Acorn, which Obama-adoring news outlets did not report. Maybe the whole Acorn story is bogus, and if it is then that will come out in the end; but maybe it's legitimate and maybe other stories that ObamaCo doesn't like are legitimate, and if Fox isn't reporting them then nobody is. That's censorship by the party in power and that is not acceptable.

 

[hungrybrownbear]

I don't like ObamaCo!!!!
>:[

 

[Kulindahr]

I understand the White House position completely, Jack, and moreover, I think you're misquoting them.

My understanding is that they believe that Fox News "is not a news organization, but a network devoted to opinion". I agree completely.

Who said anything about the White House trying to censor them in any way? The White House, it seems to me, is simply expressing an opinion—an opinion with which most of us wholeheartedly agree.

This whole outrage on the part of the Republicans is the biggest Straw Man argument I think I've ever seen.

It's not just an opinion -- they're trying to tell the media how to treat one of their own. That may not quite be bullying, but it's the sort of thing I'd expect to hear from the Mob, telling me who I can't do business with any longer. The next step is breaking legs... or the political equivalent.

BTW, I catch Fox News occasionally, and I've never seen anything biased.

 

[NickCole]

Why would Obama want to marginalize the top rated cable news network?

Fox News has pulled off another dominant quarter, claiming the top 10 cable news programs in 3Q 2009 and growing against 3Q 2008, while CNN and MSNBC lost substantial portions of their election-boom audience.

Fox News averaged 2.25 million total viewers in prime time for the third quarter, up 2% over the previous year. That's more than CNN (946,000, down 30%) and MSNBC (788,000, down 10%) combined.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/fox-news-dominates-3q-200_n_304260.html

Will he be able to do it?

What did Mark Twain say? “Never pick a fight with someone who buys their ink by the barrel.”

Or maybe better yet I love the old adage, “Never wrestle with a pig – you both get dirty and the pig enjoys it.“

 

[hotatlboi]

To me, this shows Rep. Weiner being facetious and condescending. If you contrast this when Rep. Weiner goes on MSNBC, he is allowed to make his promotional pitches and everyone nods in agreement. The job of the press is to hold those in charge accountable and get answers to tough questions (like it or not).

And Fox did the same thing when Hannity interviewed Cheney.

Both sides pander to the ideology they want to hear.

 

[hungrybrownbear]

Oh Jesus... people are still referring to Fox as "news"? It is not news. It's comment and entertainment. Negative entertainment that is.... kind of like watching the Friday the 13th collection or Saw.

Treat Fox as such.

msnbc.

Both sides pander to the ideology they want to hear.

thank you...

 

[Kulindahr]

Here's a good example of journalism at Fox. Recently, Bill Hemmer, who I consider pretty fair, questions Rep. Anthony Weiner about the lack of transparency in this White House. Bill continued to follow up with Rep. Weiner when he was not answering the questions. Take a look and see what you think:


Source: America's Newsroom: Exceedingly Open; Date: October 20, 2009

At the 1:44 point, Rep. Weiner said the following:

"I don't think anyone ever made a pledge that every government meeting held for the rest of time will be open to the cameras of Fox News."

To me, this shows Rep. Weiner being facetious and condescending. If you contrast this when Rep. Weiner goes on MSNBC, he is allowed to make his promotional pitches and everyone nods in agreement. The job of the press is to hold those in charge accountable and get answers to tough questions (like it or not).

Oh Jesus... people are still referring to Fox as "news"? It is not news. It's comment and entertainment. Negative entertainment that is.... kind of like watching the Friday the 13th collection or Saw.

Treat Fox as such.

Did you watch the clip in the above post? That was a journalist doing his job right. That counts as news.

Fox News does news. Their commentary stuff is... deficient, dastardly, and despicable.

Do you really expect people to think you see that news clip as "kind of like watching Friday the 13th collection"?

 

[hungrybrownbear]

Did you watch the clip in the above post? That was a journalist doing his job right. That counts as news.

Fox News does news. Their commentary stuff is... deficient, dastardly, and despicable.

Do you really expect people to think you see that news clip as "kind of like watching Friday the 13th collection"?

thank you!
:3

 

[JB3]

Oh Jesus... people are still referring to Fox as "news"? It is not news. It's comment and entertainment. Negative entertainment that is.... kind of like watching the Friday the 13th collection or Saw.

Treat Fox as such.

You are speaking of only their 'opinion' shows, not their news hours. Even MSNBC, for all it does wrong, does their hard news coverage properly. They still report the news, just as every other channel does. It is the opinion programming where they fall apart. (just like CNN and MSNBC)

 

[NickCole]

I just watched the Hemmer/Weiner piece upthread.

Hemmer was respectful and reasonable; Weiner was defensive, attacking and dishonest. In fact he outright lied at the end about the government negotiating drug prices.

And Hemmer's right: Obama promised transparency but over and over and over that's been another broken promise. That's just a fact.

Obama and those defending him are ruining the credibility of the Democratic Party and squandering the best chance we'll have in our lifetime. It's such a shame. A dirty rotten shame after waiting all these years for this opportunity.

 

[hotatlboi]

^ Hemmer can also be deceitful, such as when he falsely suggested that a Dept of education official condoned statutory rape.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/...us-fo_n_327140.html?slidenumber=0#slide_image

It's a required capability for employment by that station.

 

[NickCole]

^ Hemmer can also be deceitful, such as when he falsely suggested that a Dept of education official condoned statutory rape.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/...us-fo_n_327140.html?slidenumber=0#slide_image

It's a required capability for employment by that station.

Hemmer got that information from Jennings himself.

As David Corn reported:

In a 2000 talk to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, which Jennings had started, he recalled that this student had been 15 years old, had met the older man in a bus station bathroom--for that was the only way he knew how to meet gay people--and that he (Jennings) had told him, "I hope you knew to use a condom." Jennings' best friend had died of AIDS the week before his chat with the student. According to Jennings, the student replied, "Why should I? My life isn't worth saving anyway."

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/10/new-right-wing-attack-target-kevin-jennings

 

[JB3]

The right wing is a whole lot more experienced than the left at propaganda.

It turns out that the student in question was over the age of consent in the state in which the incident occurred:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200910020020

Here's what the student himself has to say about the incident today:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200910020029

We on the left really need to get "on the ball" and learn some kamikaze press tactics from our rightie foes.

If you're going to try and make a point about the mistakes of Fox, using Media Matters is not the way to do it. They are just as bad at making shit up to fit their point of view as Fox is. It makes you look like a hypocrite. You can't after all, bitch and moan about Fox being biased and then go and cite one of the most biased organizations on the face of the earth.

 

[JB3]

Droid....er....I think there's a picture of the driver's license on one of the cites.

I'm well aware of that. The problem is that Media Matters is just as biased as Fox News, so it isn't exactly helping your cause by using them to cite Fox's errors.

 

[JB3]

Anyway, Droid, here's how it is:

The righties are complaining about the White House calling Fox News a Wing of the Republican Party. It's obvious to me, at least, that they're speaking in metaphor. (Of course, they're not really an actual wing of the Party, merely a mouthpiece).

All along, of course, the MSNBC has been a mouthpiece of the left. Who ever denied it? I never have, and neither have any lefties I know. MSNBC itself doesn't even pretend to be "fair and balanced." It's biased; so what?

The thing is, the left accepts this whole situation as "just one of those things", while the right denies it even exists, hence the whole reason for this thread.

The reason this thread exists is because a sitting president and his administration has decided to wage a PR war against a media entity. THAT is the issue here. I'll be the first to admit that Fox is biased in their opinion programming. But I find the fact that the President is going after them for that very troubling. It reeks of Nixonian paranoia and vindictiveness, and it is most certainly conduct unbecoming of the office.

 

[hungrybrownbear]

That's exactly my point.

You expressed it better than I did.

^your doggie is cute.
:]

 

[JB3]

I wonder why the Republicans are crying now. Bush hardly ever gave any interviews to other networks except Fox. Anyone that criticized the Bush administration were harassed. They only picked the journalists that would ask the easy questions. Hypocritical much?

In all fairness, Bush rarely gave interviews. When he did, like most other presidents, he gave them to a variety of networks all at the same time.

 

[NickCole]

The right wing is a whole lot more experienced than the left at propaganda.

I agree with that, but ObamaCo has been making up for lost ground. And that's not necessarily bad in itself -- propaganda has been used by good and bad people for centuries -- but ObamaCo's doing it the way Atwater/Rove did except more so. And that brings down the Democratic Party to the smarmy level that Republicans used to own. Obama promised Hope and Change and better things but the truth is he brought a smarmier version of Bush & Co. That's what I've said all along and that's what ObamaCo is proving with stuff like this and their secrets and deals with lobbyists like PhRMA, etc.

It turns out that the student in question was over the age of consent in the state in which the incident occurred:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200910020020

Here's what the student himself has to say about the incident today:

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200910020029

That's how it turns out. But Fox reported the information as Jennings himself had told it in 2000. There's nothing deceitful or wrong about that. Jennings should be questioned as to why he characterized the young man as 15 and his own actions as implicitly condoning the behavior -- though, speaking only for myself, I don't have all that big a problem with his version of events. He was 24, which is very young as well, and it was the 1980s, which was a very different time in terms of being gay and how we viewed our sexuality. I don't doubt Jennings has evolved since then. But of course the ObamaLeft doesn't approach it that way, they just lie about Bill Hemmer and try to ruin him and Fox. That's not okay.

We on the left really need to get "on the ball" and learn some kamikaze press tactics from our rightie foes.

Obama/Axelrod/Emanuel are at least as bad. And that Wiener guy in the interview, by doing ObamaCo's bidding, is, as well.

Democrats used to be the good guys. ObamaNation is changing that.