So the White House has finally launched into Fox News, guns blazing. As the Christian Science Monitor says, it’s quite remarkable given the calm almost aloof way that Obama has handled anti-health care campaigners and over-the-top Congressmen who may or may not have an issue about Black presidents.
For its part, the White House has put out its own briefing showing how Fox was distorting the news. White House communications director Anita Dunn has gone on CNN accusing Fox of being the communications arm of the Republican Party.
As expected, Fox has hit back with commentator Glenn Beck, as reported here, claiming that” they’re more worried about the war on Fox than the actual war in Afghanistan.”
Fox has released its own statement claiming that the White House is conflating opinions of commentators like Beck with news reporters. “As for Dunn’s complaint about Fox News’ coverage of the Obama campaign, a study by the Pew Research Center showed that 40 percent of Fox News stories on Obama in the last six weeks of the campaign were negative. Similarly, 40 percent of Fox News’ stories on Obama’s Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, were negative.
“On CNN, by contrast, there was a 22-point disparity in the percentage of negative stories on Obama (39 percent) and McCain (61 percent). The disparity was even greater at MSNBC, according to Pew, where just 14 percent of Obama stories were negative, compared to a whopping 73 percent of McCain stories — a spread of 59 points.”
Let me say now that I’ve never been a fan of Fox News but this makes me feel very uncomfortable because the problem is not going to go away and if anything it will get worse. As reported in the Huffington Post, CNN senior political analyst David Gergen says the White House strategy is risky. “If you are going to get very personal against the media you’re going to find that the animosities are just going to deepen, and you’re going to find that you are almost going to draw viewers to people you are attacking,” Gergen said. “You build them up in some ways, you give them stature.”
Will the White House strategy change the Fox line? It’s unlikely. This is going to get ugly.
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