It has been well established that Fox News is essentially the only major media outlet that is willing to ask the tough questions that are normally asked of any President. The general consensus on Fox News is that it is a conservative network, but that is untrue - they are simply willing to ask questions and provide a forum for both sides of whatever issue is at stake. However, to Obama and his liberal buddies, simply allowing the other side to be heard is offensive, so they've decided to attack Fox News...aggressively:
“Appearing on ABC’s This Week, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said Fox News shouldn’t be treated as a news organization. “And the bigger thing is that other news organizations, like yours, ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way,” he said.
Then they whined:
When that didn't bully Fox into line, they tried ignoring Fox:
That’s true even though the motivations of the White House are clear: Fire up a liberal base disillusioned with Obama by attacking the hated Fox. Try to keep a critical news outlet off-balance. Raise doubts about future Fox stories.
But most of all, get other journalists to think twice before following the network’s stories in their own coverage.
As you can see, not only is the White House going to ignore Fox, but they're demanding that their official transcribers in the mainstream media ignore stories carried on Fox, too. Of course, all of this attention did absolutely nothing to hurt Fox; in fact, their ratings have gone up since the demonization began.
Up until this point, I have been watching this kerfuffle develop, thinking it was simply another example of hyper-partisanship from the White House. It's pretty common by now for the Obama administration to ignore Fox reporters at press conferences and on interview circuits, so this was nothing new, right? Well, I saw a pair of articles today that made me think again about the significance of what's been going on.
First, it's classic Alinsky:
Alinsky’s RULE Number 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
The Obama White House is not only isolating and targeting FOX News (see Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals) for reporting on the radicals in the administration and the destructive nature of the White House policies, they also are ordering other the state-run media outlets to alienate and isolate FOX News.
FOX News reported, via Free Republic:
The White House is calling on other news organizations to isolate and alienate Fox News as it sends out top advisers to rail against the cable channel as a Republican Party mouthpiece.
Top political strategists question the decision by the Obama administration to escalate its offensive against Fox News. And as of Monday, the four other major television networks had not given any indication that they intend to sever their ties with Fox News.
But several top White House officials have taken aim at Fox News since communications director Anita Dunn branded Fox “opinion journalism masquerading as news” in an interview last Sunday.
Obama is a master of the Alinsky method; it's what he's used to sucker the American people into electing him President, then ramrodding much of his radical Leftist agenda through Congress despite being worlds away from what the American people actually want. Ultimately, Alinsky was all about riling up a populace for the purpose of overthrowing capitalist societies.
But here's the kicker for me:
This seems so obviously correct that I feel embarrassed for not having figured it out sooner.
The rationale of the White House offensive against Fox News has been a topic of much puzzlement lately. Is this just the White House lashing out? Are they trying to rally the base?
But I think Mike Allen and Josh Gerstein nail the real explanation in their story today: The White House is working to prevent stories born on Fox from crossing over into more widely-viewed media. Most Americans still haven’t heard of Van Jones, for instance; and the strategy is now all about containment…
Hm, containment...! Basically, the idea here is that if certain stories only run on Fox -- like the Van Jones scandal or all things ACORN -- then the White House can point to it and call it right-wing nutballery, thus minimizing it in the eyes of anyone who only watches the mainstream media. Outside of Fox News, the only legitimate reporter consistently asking tough questions and calling Obama out on its hypocrisy is Jake Tapper, and unfortunately for Obama, when Tapper publicizes these things on ABC, he forces the rest of the mainstream media to cover them, too.
Of course, Fox News is already the news leader in the country, and these media organizations have to make money at some point if they want to avoid folding altogether. As these other media outlets watch Fox's #1 ratings continue to spiral upward, they will face a decision of Obama worship versus self-preservation.
Anyway, the big danger here is that if Fox is successfully isolated, there will be a scary lack of free speech in the country. I hope Tapper has an excellent security system at his home and no skeletons in his closet. Just ask Joe the Plumber how being in Obama's spotlight works out.
There's my two cents.
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