Posted on 10/20/2009 7:52:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
You may only know about "Watergate" because every scandal since then has been appended with the word "-gate." A part of the Watergate scandal was the publication of what became known as Richard Nixon's "Enemies List."
According to a memo from White House Counsel John Dean, this was a list of people whom were determined to be political opponents of the Nixon Administration and how the White House intended to "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies."
Most of the "enemies" were union executives, major fundraisers for Democrats, and cultural "radic-libs" as they were apparently called in the White House, like Paul Newman.
But what caught the public's attention was when the list was released and the Nixon White House targeted the managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, the chief political columnist for the Washington Star newspaper, and CBS correspondent Daniel Schorr.
According to broadcast lore, Schorr, who was covering the Watergate Hearings for CBS, found out he was on the list as he was reading it aloud on the air.
The notion of a President wanting to use the full power and force of the Federal government to intimidate people who disagreed with him, was appalling. It might have happened in every Presidency since Washington, but no one had taken the time to codify the process by putting it into an official memorandum.
And the concept of attempting to intimidate the press was, for many people, among the most serious of misdeeds by Richard Nixon.
So, where is the outrage over the public war the White House is waging against the Fox News Channel?
Can't find it.
The whole thing started last week when Anita Dunn, WH communications director, said during an interview on CNN:
"Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. Let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."
The drama continued on the Sunday news shows when Senior Advisor to Obama, David Axlerod said on ABC's "This Week" of Fox,
"It's not really news. It's pushing a point of view. The bigger thing is that, other news organizations, like yours, ought not treat them that way."
I can remember when CNN was a new concept and ABC, CBS and NBC news divisions didn't treat CNN like it was a serious news organization.
The Lad called last night and asked why the White House was doing this.
"The need an enemy," I said. The Democratic base is disenchanted with the Obama Presidency - even Saturday Night Live has decided Obama's stature has been sufficiently diminished that they can do a skit about how he hasn't accomplished any of the major goals he ran on.
The war in Afghanistan is a huge problem with the Liberal base, and Obama's apparent inability (and/or unwillingness) to hold Congressional Democrats' feet to the political fire over a public option in the health care debate is further causing head-scratching among that group.
Add to that, he hasn't paid off on "card-check" which he promised unions, and has limited his support for gay rights to speeches and dinners, and you can see why his polling numbers have settled in at just above 50 percent mark.
So, the Administration has decided to start a fight to re-energize the base. It doesn't do any good to fight with someone who is not worthy, if you want to make this strategy work you have to have the fight with someone your base already knows - and already hates.
Fox News Channel fits that bill.
If Obama can make the point stick, that Fox News is not "news", and gets his base to buy into the theory that Obama is the victim of unfair coverage, it gives the White House a rallying point.
I don't think it's having the desired effect. One of the outcomes of the political wars between Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich is that the American audience for political news has become very sophisticated. They know what they want, and they know where to find it, whether it's Rachel Maddow on MSNBC or Glenn Beck on Fox.
The bigger issue is that few other news outlets - print or broadcast - have chosen to report on how dangerous this tack can be. The most dangerous type of news censorship is self-censorship.
That's where an "enemies list" can all too easily lead.
"...when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas - that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out."
It's been said that one never truly appreciates something until they have lost it. For the majority of Americans it is difficult to imagine what the loss of freedom and liberty is like. Many can't imagine living in a country where you can be arrested for you say or write. Like many of you, growing up in America I had always taken my liberty and freedom for granted. That all changed when I moved overseas and discovered firsthand that it is our love of freedom and liberty that has made our country an exceptional nation, it is today what we fight for.
Our forefathers before and our brave soldiers today are fighting and sacrificing their lives for freedom and liberty, not for diversity, respect, tolerance, "politcal correctness" or for that matter "Hope" and "Change".
- FoxNews is not considered Media by the White House.
- White House says that they “control the media”.
It’s then safe to assume FoxNews is the only major outlet with information not controlled by the White House.
“It’s been said that one never truly appreciates something until they have lost it.”
My old Daddy used to express it in his East Texas way like this: “You don’t miss the water ‘till the well runs dry.”
The warriors and generals who understand Sun-Tzu and Machiavelli. Both will operate quietly. Both will pay large sums for photos and both will sing praises, while they work mightily, with their hands to undermined 535 self serving individuals in the legislature, while in the White House they will focus on a class clown, who can always be counted on for laughs and a naive young man, who uses proxies as his guard but, is very willing to through them under the bus when expediency dictates.
From disappointed people who will realize their vessel of hope is empty but, for his lack of strength to even hold water, there will be those that know the secrets and will pass them on, if only to stop a scatter brained and Maoist administration.
When people realize they are or have been used as a means and upon being so casually discarded, they will pose questions of hypothetical, so as not to draw fire but to lead questioners in the direction of answers.
There will be people who are disaffected they will seek to elevate another person at the expense of their chosen one.
Fair is fair, right? If after all you are being harmed at some point when do you quietly retaliate against your own decision?
B) Undoubtedly that would be a reporter or cameraperson employed by and reporting for a bona fide news organization.
C) The White House Press office has badged reporters from FOX News and they are in fact considered members of the Press Corps, i.e. they are accredited as reporters from a legitimate news agency to be on White House Grounds, attending briefings, get reports and even film or interview the President and his staff. If I am not mistaken, Ms. Dunn presides over the White House Press Office and arranges for credentialing of the White House Press Corps.
D) If what she asserts is right, that "Let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is", then I would have the Fox people call her bluff and deliver their badges in protest and state that she make a decision as to whether they are illegally holding those West Wing and OEOB press badges since they are not a legimitate news organization.
She can back down.
OR
She can yank their press access and then the revolution, my friend, will be on.
I would dare her to do it. Seriously. As a publicity stunt, why not call these bastards out on their words and see if they are all talk and no action, if they put their money where their big, fat Maoist mouths are.
The other day I posted that IMHO a good strategy for Rupert Murdoch would be to very visibly hire a bunch more investigative journalists and researchers as a clear response to the WH accusations.
After all, isn't the point of real investigative journalism to find out what's going on in places that very specifically do NOT want investigative journalists around?
A Media Czar is just around the corner.
We need some good Woodward and Bernstein's on the patriot side of things, to BRING DOWN THIS CORRUPT ADMINISTRATION which is in the opening phases of Control of the Media and Censorship, in addition to other abuses of power and constitutional violations.
By the way, sidebar here to Ms. Dunn (not to the FR poster) by the White House Press Corps own statement themselves, they consider themselves as the following legitimate news outlets:
Media Organizations: ABC | Agence France Presse | American Urban Radio Networks | Associated Press | Bloomberg | CBS | Chicago Tribune | CBN | Christian Science Monitor | Copley News Service | Cox News Service | CNN | Dallas Morning News | Dow Jones | Financial Times | Fox News | Hearst | Houston Chronicle | Human Events || Los Angeles Times | McClatchy | National Journal | National Public Radio | National Review | NBC | Newsweek | New York Daily News | New York Times | Reuters | Salem Radio Network | Scripps Howard | Slate | Talk Radio Network | Time | USA Today/Gannett | U.S. News | Voice of America | Wall Street Journal | Washington Examiner | The Washington Post | Washington Times
Care to take issue with this? Then, YANK FOX's NEWS CREDENTIALS TO HAVE ACCESS AS PART OF THE EXCLUSIVE PRESS CORP RESERVED FOR LEGITIMATE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS.
And if not, then....SHUT UP.
“Wall Street”
Your joking right.
The Zero admin has been proping up WS.
Especially when it can be used to make the great unwashed masses believe the economy is healthy.
Maybe you believe that giving Billions of taxpayer $$ to financial institutions to artificially inflate their profitability but I don’t.
If so, then every bankrupcy court should be transformed into a TARP institution and all Americans that need financial help gets to have all of their debts paid by the taxpayers.
Enemies List according to The Globe...
Glenn Beck
Sarah Palin
Guy who did the YouTube videos claiming he had
gay sex and did crack with Obama
Pat Boone (???!!!!!)
Barry’s not a fan of the white shoes, I guess.
Or Pat’s version of Tutti Fruiti.....
How could anyone leave Rush and the Clintons off of this list?
noOb! you need put down the crack pipe. It has affect your mind and developed into a fullblow cognitive disorder.
I never said anything you implied in your post.
You have inferred whole-lot-a want you want, in a very vain attemtp to score some points.
Bzzz! to the back of the line.
“with the demonization of Wall Street “
Your words NOT mine.
have a great day day!
Even this administration's hubris won't allow them to make Fox News into a sudden martyr without the right context. Incrementalism is their objective.
One possible scenario is that they have now called Fox News out but said they will play nice. Then if FNC does something the WH doesn't like, or if Glenn Beck picks off many more administration members, 0bama will say "See? We told you they had an agenda. We are no longer going to work with them and we are taking away their credentials."
But even if they do this I think there will be enough backlash to support Fox and make the WH suffer.
If they yank FOX’s credentials....I think there will be “problems.”
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