Obama's foolish war of choice
The reasons why Obama shouldn't wage war against Fox News
Obama's foolish war of choice
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
In conversations this week, people have repeatedly asked me two questions:
1. How 'bout dem Phillies, huh?
2. Is Obama doing a smart thing by declaring war on Fox News?
My answer to the first question is obvious. Here's my answer to the second question:
No. The president is actually doing a very dumb thing.
As I mentioned here last Friday, "it's no mystery" why the Obama team would feel tempted to wage war against Fox News, given the network's track record. Indeed, top Obama players ramped up their frontal attacks on Sunday and Monday, vowing that "we're going to treat them like we treat an opponent" because, in their view, Fox is merely "opinion journalism masquerading as news." That description sounds about right, but here's an even better characterization, courtesy of Northeastern University journalism professor Alan Schroeder: "Fox News is an entertainment network that employs the conventions of journalism to promote a right-wing political ideology."
But so what? Just because Fox is Fox, it doesn't necessarily follow that the Obama team is smart to go on the attack. Quite the contrary, it's tactically stupid:
1. Going after Fox serves only to elevate Fox, making it appear that Fox is on an equal footing with the White House. Every president gets unfavorable press coverage; lashing out at the press generally makes a president looks small. In this instance, Fox winds up looking bigger. There's no need for Obama to do that, because he's the one with the biggest megaphone. His last speech to Congress drew 32 million TV viewers, according to the Nielsens. His last appearance on CBS' 60 Minutes drew 10 million viewers. Glenn Beck, on Fox, typically gets 2.2 million; Sean Hannity, 2.1 million. Why go to war with Fox, which only boosts its profile and plays right into the hands of Fox chief Roger Ailes - the ex-Nixon aide who thrives on this kind of pugilism?
2. Speaking of Nixon, the attacks on Fox merely serve to make Obama look Nixonesque. Which is hardly Obama's preferred image. Back in '69, Nixon sent forth his vice president, Spiro Agnew, to wage frontal war against CBS and the other "nattering nabobs of negativism," and it made that president look petty and vindictive. In fact, if George W. Bush had waged the same kind of frontal war against MSNBC, the odds are high that much of the Washington commentariat would have accused him of trying to intimidate the press and despoiling the First Amendment. They would have assailed him as petty and vindictive. Is Obama less so? Or is he getting a pass from most pundits simply because his chosen target is Fox?
3. The war on Fox is an unnecessary public distraction. Obama has a lot on his plate already, most of it very substantive - Afghanistan, health care, the economy, climate change, stuff like that - and his smartest play is to keep his eye on the ball...rather than try and make a big fuss out of an old story about how Fox is conservative.
Maybe Obama would be wise to keep these four aphorisms in mind:
Harry Truman once said, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." Every president takes heat, much of it unfair. Deal with it, it's part of the job description.
Dwight Eisenhower once said, "Never get into a pissing match with a skunk." Because you'll just wind up smelling like the skunk.
Barack Obama himself said on Feb. 3, "I don't always get my most favorable coverage on Fox, but I think that's part of how democracy is supposed to work. You know, we're not supposed to all be in lock step here..."
And as yours truly always likes to say, metaphorically speaking: "There are always ants at a picnic." Just ignore the ants, Mr. President, and bon appetit.
Nigelthemastiff - What you referring to? Do you have actual quotes? It does appear as though you might be confusing an opinion from the actual news reported between 6 and 8 pm by Brett Baier and Sheppard Smith.- "if the repubs fight wars so terribly, then why did President Obama keep the whole GOP team over at the Defense Dept. when he was elected?" ok, let's review the current leadership on national security........ 1) Robert Gates, Sec of Defense was nominated by Bush (only after GOP hero Rumsfeld insisted upon resigning for a second time - his resignation was rejected by Bush the 1st time); 2) William J. Lynn, Dep Sec of Defense was nominated by Obama; 3) Dennis Blair, Dir of National Intel was nominated by Obama; 4) James Jones, National Security Advisor was nominated by Obama.......... clearly, we have a GOP team running things. Yep, it burns.— the stupid does burn
- "let me in" wrote "I would also note that the majority of the country identify themselves as conservative or moderate, with less than 25% identifying themselves as liberal. - LMAO - The Stupid Truly Does Burn!!!" From Gallup, June 15, 2009 "Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004. The 21% calling themselves liberal is in line with findings throughout this decade, but is up from the 1990s." I guess that extinguishes the burning.— tom - wilmington, de
- SMike, my post of 2:44 quotes the various people. It is from the Leonard Pitts column I referenced several days ago. Even when I hear opinions I'd like them to be based on factual information, not inaccuracies, don't you? How can I form my own opinion about which I feel comfortable if my thoughts are based on information that just isn't true?— NigeltheMastiff
- stupid, Robert Gates, the Sectry. of Defense is a republican. Even a newly elected dem president knew he couldn't run a war correctly:) No shame in admitting that. In fact I admire it:)— NEPhilly
- Nigel...O'Reilly, when saying "Tiller the Baby Killer" was using a phrase from other sources. He has many times shown clips of when he used that statement and several other times noted the name did not come from him. One such time was when he stated in his opening "The doctor, known as “Tiller the baby Killer” among some people who objected to his practice,". You can go to this site and see clips of O'Reilly saying "Known as" and other references. This is not mentioned by Pitts, but I would not expect it to be. I am surprised you did not factcheck Leonard before posting from his article. Here is the link..http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7192— tom - wilmington, de
- Nigel, the Holdren book did not reject the statements you mention. Forced sterilization, for example, it stated that it would be a difficult procedure to carry out because of political ethical, moral and other problems, but also offered a remedy to meet this challenges. It was not until being questioned by David Vitter during his confirmation that Holdren denounced those views. Never in his testimony did he state that the book refuted the idea in later passages. I am again surprised you did not factcheck this yourself before taking Pitts, who has a definite liberal slant, at his word.— tom - wilmington, de
- Tom, I did go to Politifact.com. The site says O'Reilly's statements indicate the baby killer reference was his opinion. I checked the others out as well, and Pitts seems to be correct -- if you can believe these fact checking sites. I found them pretty useful during the presidential campaign, when both sides were straying from the truth.— NigeltheMastiff
- "Robert Gates, the Sectry. of Defense is a republican." Right, that's why I distinguished him as being "nominated by Bush"........... now back to that claim about Obama keeping "the whole GOP team"........... oh, right, it burns.— the stupid does burn
- Tiller was a baby killer when you get right down to it (performing partial birth and late term abortions), so that wasn't even a lie, just distastefully verbalized.— NEPhilly
- Let me correct myself. I didn't check out Holdren. In fact, I don't really know who he is. Could you enlighten me? Whoever he is, the notion of doing such a thing is disgusting. But Pitts did seem to be right about the others.— NigeltheMastiff
- Nigel, I watched the video's of O'Reilly actually uttering the words. To me, actually hearing the words is better than taking another person's interpretation of what was being said.— tom - wilmington, de
- Dear Leader invited-get this- Olbermann, Maddow and Frank Rich among others to an off-the record pow-wow to discuss how Fox is not a news organization. Can someone please tell me the difference between Glenn Beck and Kieth Olbermann? The only difference is ideology.— tjm333126
- Calling Tiller a baby killer is a far cry from "distasteful verbalization." It was a call to murder which was successful.— mxlplk
- stup, when you keep the boss, you keep most of the team as well. As for the others you mentioned were nominated by President Obama only Lynn is a life long democrat. The other 2 are lifelong military men and probably closet repubs:) As for the 'it burns' gimmick, give it a rest, it only antagonizes people and makes it harder to have polite conversation about our differences in policy. If you can't see that, then you're right, it does burn:)— NEPhilly
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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