Obama Administration: Fox News Is a Political Opponent

[JohnBrowdie]

as opposed to, say, ABC, which ran his hour long health care informercial as a news item?  this is such a risky move.  it's red meat for his base, but that's probably 25% of the electorate, tops.  how is the rest of the country going to receive the chief executive of the united states declaring a news network "the enemy"?

it sounds petty, to say the least. 

Obama Administration: Fox News Is a Political Opponent

The Obama administration says it's treating Fox News Channel as a political opponent, and executives at the top-rated cable news network are responding that the White House can't tell straight reporting from opinion.

White House communications director Anita Dunn recently told Time magazine that she thinks the channel offers "opinion journalism masquerading as news," and kept up the criticism on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday and in The New York Times Monday.

Fox's senior vice president for news, Michael Clemente, issued a statement Monday, saying:  "It's astounding the White House can't distinguish between news and opinion programming. It seems self-serving on their part."

And Fox's senior vice president for programming, Bill Shine, told the Times every time the White House criticizes the network, "our ratings go up."

Late-night comedians turning on Obama

Fox has drawn a record number of viewers this year, averaging 1.2 million viewers, up from 1 million viewers last year. It's previous high came in 2003, the year the Iraq war started, when it had nearly 1.1 million viewers.
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Dunn says people from the administration would still talk to Fox and that Obama was likely to be interviewed on the network in the future. But, she says: "We're not going to legitimize them as a news organization."

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[JohnBrowdie]

so, now they're at war in afghanistan, iraq, and fox news.  I think a surge would probably work with fox news.  they look like they may be pushovers.

[JohnBrowdie]

yep.  the heavy hitters at fox couldn't be happier about this . . . .

WASHINGTON - Fox News Channel types were ready to rumble Tuesday and are eagerly awaiting the next White House salvo.

Fox cable biggies Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly could hardly contain their delight at being labeled GOP shills Sunday by Obama administration Communications Director Anita Dunn, a charge that will likely prove a big ratings booster for the Rupert Murdoch-owned outlet.

"They’re more worried about the war on Fox than the actual war in Afghanistan," Beck crowed on his show. "Anita, do enjoy the show."

O’Reilly said "there's no question that Fox News is tougher on the Obama administration than the other TV operations because we actually have some conservative commentators on this network."

But O'Reilly insisted that "Our hard news reporters don't do commentary."

The excitable Beck was so happy with the attention that he plopped a map of Manhattan on his desk and put little plastic tanks and artillery pieces around Fox headquarters in Midtown.

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[JohnBrowdie]

maybe it just looks to them like fox is opposed to their agenda because they aren't fawning enough as, say, ABC news.

In White House v. Fox News War, Who Wins?

In the White House vs. Fox News war, I consider two scenarios likely. In the first scenario, both sides win: the White House gets a popularity spike among independents and Fox News solidifies its right-wing audience. In the second, more likely scenario, the White House looks petty and pathetic taking on Glenn Beck, and Fox News comes out on top. The other two quadrants of the game theory box -- (1) Fox News loses, White House wins; and (2) mutually assured destruction -- seem less likely.

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