The Obama administration has begun a crusade against Fox News for ‘attacking the administration’ and apparently for being too Republican.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press, regardless of what the president thinks about it.
No one thinks Fox News is liberal, but the network’s far-right slant has evidently come as a surprise to some in the Obama administration.
White House Communications Director Anita Dunn can be blamed for much of the feud after she called Fox News ‘opinion journalism masquerading as news.’ Dunn also complained about Fox News’ Sunday host Chris Wallace fact-checking controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans affairs, in late August.
Dunn has also been quoted saying that the Obama administration does not release information to the press it does not control. She has also said that the administration prefers live interviews than ones that could be edited by a TV station. This is understandable given how many times former President George W. Bush’s quotes were used out of context by The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and MSNBC.
Obama and his administration have asked that all the other news networks be far removed from Fox News. White House senior adviser David Axelrod even went so far as to say Fox News is ‘not a news organization.’
Obama’s’ administration should take a lesson from the previous administration and toughen up. The news is not always fair and balanced, as the Obama administration wishes it to be. And political figures will always be criticized as long as this country is a democratic.
This administration needs to focus on actually being transparent, as it promised to be. Instead of picking wars with news networks, it should let the media do its job, which is to inform viewers, not to kiss up to the administration.
