Hardly Machiavellian or Sun Tzu. More like the knee-capping Red Brigades terrorists. Even MSNBC's "Morning Joe" talking head former Dem Congressman Harold Ford Jr. believes the tactic is a mistake.
Dunn dubs Fox "an arm of the GOP." So what is MSNBC? Who's the skunk? The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik sees a return to the press vise of Nixon/Agnew silencing the "nattering nabobs of negatism. It's not just Fox News getting the WH hammer. ABC's White House correspondent Jake Tapper was threatened with access after he reported last month that Obama was "overexposed."
Rather than strengthening reporter shield laws as Obama promised during the campaign, Obama is proposing to weaken laws protecting journalists from revealing sources.
Back to the NYT and Brian Stelter: “Instead of governing, the White House continues to be in campaign mode, and Fox News is the target of their attack mentality,” Michael Clemente, the channel’s senior vice president for news, said in a statement on Sunday. “Perhaps the energy would be better spent on the critical issues that voters are worried about.”
Fox’s senior vice president for programming, Bill Shine, says of the criticism from the White House, “Every time they do it, our ratings go up.” Mr. Obama’s first year is on track to be the Fox News Channel’s highest rated.
One Fox executive said that the jabs by the White House could solidify the network’s audience base and recalled that Mr. Ailes had remarked internally: “Don’t pick a fight with people who like to fight.”
Even CNN's David Gergen is calling the Obama strategy "risky."
But of course Fox is an arm of the GOP. They obviously do not follow lock step the minions of NBC, MSNBC, CNN, etc. I guess the philosophy of this White House is if you're not totlally for us you are totally against us.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a long 4 years for the White House staff unless they get some thicker skin.
Don't count on the thicker skin, Bobcat. They want it every which way but loose.
ReplyDeleteIt's increasingly clear that we're dealing with people very adept at getting elected but inept from that point on.
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