Posted on 10/19/2009 11:43:32 AM PDT by La Lydia
The Obama White House is making no secret of its distaste for Fox News. In a round of Sunday talk show appearances, the administration escalated its war against the network that likes to call itself "fair and balanced" but that happens to feature quite a few conservative voices...
But some are wondering if this is smart politics. Given that Fox News boasts a far larger audience than cable competitors CNN and MSNBC, and given that most elections are decided by independents who might occasionally watch FNC, the strategy could backfire.
“It's a very risky strategy,” perennial presidential advisor David Gergen said recently on CNN. “It's not one I would advocate.”
For its part, the administration seems content to keep the battle going, even though the wars have already claimed a few victims. Glenn Beck pounded the lectern relentlessly about green jobs czar Van Jones for signing a petition suggesting government conspiracy in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Jones resigned.
Now Beck has turned his furor on White House communications director Anita Dunn for saying that China's Mao Tse-tung was one of her favorite philosophers. Firing back, Dunn said she picked up the line from renowned Republican strategist Lee Atwater and that it was meant as irony.
"The use of the phrase 'favorite political philosophers' was intended as irony, but clearly the effort fell flat -- at least with a certain Fox commentator whose sense of irony may be missing," she said. Keeping up the White House attack, Dunn also charged that Fox serves as "the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party."...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Fox news = enemy, taliban = seat at the table.
Distraction. Americans have the Jerry Springer mindset. The American public will happily follow this food fight.
Meanwhile the knife of socialized medicine will be slid into the public’s back.
What it does highlight is just how thin a wall there is between the United States and despotism and what a bunch of thugs are in office.
You may be right, but I haven’t noticed any drop off in the news coverage of the health care/socialized medicine debate.
Want to bet that the Atwater reference is never found.
In Twain’s day it was “never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel.” Today in regards to Fox, specifically Beck, I’d say “never pick a fight with a man who has a 3 hour radio show, a TV show whose ratings are soaring, and who also writes bestseller books on a regular basis.” The WH won’t win this one...they’ll just boost Fox’s ratings (look at a chart of Beck’s ratings since Obama’s been after Fox...he’s almost tied with BOR.)
This attack on Fox News was actually what finally got my wife’s attention. She was a Kusinch supporter but has said that she will vote Republican next time.
You dont know my wife so you dont know how much of a statement that was. It was huge. She had shown zero interest in the Conservatives before.
She actually watched Glenn Beck last week without snide comment. Actually listened.
Our message is getting out there. Fight for every family member and co-worker you can.
Leave them with doubts about their cause. Even if they wont admit it to your face most folks will go home and think about what you say. Start the worry in their brains!
Anne Dunn looks like an old commie warhorse type of gal. Nothing she can say now is going to get her out of that ideological ghetto.
Yeah, How Ironic that she kept talking about Mao.
Bring it on!
Shades of Nixon’s enemies list.
If this was her oratory attempt to use irony, she left out the punch line that made the point she was looking for. Beck played the entire context, obviously anticipating this response.
After careful analyzation, I am sure, either, there was no irony intended or she is too stupid to be analyzing other media. She carefully explains why Mao was her man. He was persistent and went against the grain. He took the unpopular path against all odds and succeeded (in killing millions).
And what was that token thing about Mother Theresa? "Go find your own Calcutta?" I didn't see what this had to do with political philosophy and it didn't seem very flattering to her.
Except some of the enemies richly deserved to be on his list, like that old communist Daniel Schorr. And crackpots like John Conyers, Morton Halperin and that editor at the LA Times who worked for Splash Kennedy.
Dunn’ statement on Mao was intended to be ironic; right. So, was she also being ironic about Mother Teresa? Was she so bent on being ironic that she devoted something like half the speech to how great and influential Mao was? Does she really think no one can listen to her (recorded) speech and immediately discern the context?
She blames the Mao statement on Lee Atwater, a dead guy who can’t refute it. There is no record anywhere of him having said it, that is, it is not cited. I can’t watch the video of that bowwow actually giving her speech. She has some kind of tic or something that makes it painful to watch for very long. But I would guess her devotion is Mao is much greater than her devotion to Mother Teresa. Like many Dems, she is attempting to have it both ways by saying she was “joking” about Mao and attempting to be serious about Mother Teresa. Whatta gal.
First the NYT, then CNN now the LATimes are saying the same thing.
It has to be self destruction. We couldn’t have planned this is we tried.
He is one sinister, creepy guy.
Those 5 Glenn Beck “re-founders” might have the White House going on the offensive. Who are they and what might they say?
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