Barack Obama versus Faux News

[marmar]

from The Nation:


Obama Campaign Escalates Fox Attack at Debate
posted by Ari Melber on 10/16/2008 @ 12:38am




It was quick, but Barack Obama ramped up his battle with Fox News during the final presidential debate.

Responding to the false charge that he backed tax hikes for people making under $50,000, Obama cited news reports rebutting the charge. "Even Fox News disputes it," he said, "and that doesn't happen very often when it comes to accusations about me." Voters are used to Republican politicians hammering the press, but such a pointed reference is unusual for top Democrats – and remarkable for the non-combative Obama. The line, delivered during the last major televised event of the campaign, is part of a broader strategy to confront Fox News, said an Obama aide after the debate.

Standing beneath a dark blue campaign sign in the "spin room" at the Hofstra gym, Obama communications director Dan Pfeifer said the campaign had determined that Fox was a "powerful infrastructure whose goal is to drive a cultural schism in America." Pointing to the channel's "calculated" efforts to "push issues like ACORN and Bill Ayers," Pfeifer said the campaign will confront "anyone who seeks to advance a false argument about Obama." Some reporters at Fox are "fair and admirable," he added, but "they're the exception rather than the rule."

A few steps away, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds was incredulous when I relayed Pfeifer's take. "For Barack Obama to complain about media coverage is like a fish complaining about water," he said, "it's absurd." Bounds, who appears on all the cable channels for the campaign, also pointed to "independent studies" that indicate Obama actually receives better coverage. Complaints about Obama's press coverage, Bounds continued, were just a distraction from Obama's record. The real fight is "not between Obama and Fox news," he said, "but between Obama and the truth."

The Obama campaign also pointed to Obama's criticism of Fox News in the forthcoming issue of the New York Times Sunday magazine. "I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls," Obama told reporter Matt Bai. "If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me, right? Because the way I'm portrayed 24/7 is as a freak!... there is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it's powerful," he added. Pfeifer hit on the exact same "cultural schism" point in our exchange. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/372700

[tavalon]

1. This is long overdue

That station is the propoganda arm of the Republican party. The Goebbels of "News". It is not fair, nor balanced but rather a convoluted batch of Orwellian lies strung together by actors pretending to be reporters.

[tularetom]

2. Finally - a Dem catches on and stops pretending Faux is legit

I'm really glad to see Obama pushing back against these slimey assholes. It pisses me off to see Dems acting like it is a real news organization (Hillary was only the most recent example). I believe a large portion of the American people now see Faux as propaganda arm of the Repuke party and I think Obama is the only Dem smart enough to capitalize on that perception. Hopefully others will follow his lead and starve this piece a crap.

[brianna69]

3. Go Obama!

I love this man. He doesn't take crap from anyone. I love how he is standing up to faux news and his assessment is right on.

[cbc5g]

4. Obama kicks ass...nuff said

[KharmaTrain]

5. Obama's Outfoxed Faux...

"Never let 'em see you sweat"...

All things are cyclical...and we're seeing the end of an "era". A bad, evil one. It's the rise of right wing media...it began with Rushbo and the rise of hate radio that teamed up with Faux Noise in '96 to create what Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake has called "the Mighty Wurlitzer"...a effort to flood "conservative" viewpoints and talking points into the media. The brash and aggressive tactics were effective...especially during the Clinton years...and with it Faux grew in reputation and viewership. During the booosh years, it became the party organ...wielding the hatchet effectively for many years against a lot of dissent against this regime, but slowly being exposed as the failures of the boooosh years began to pile up.

Today, Faux, like hate radio, are a lone refuge for a small and shrinking group of discredited, yet unrepentant oxygen thieves. Remember, at the most, Faux will reach 3 million people at any given time...in a country of 300 million and a voting base of over 140 million. They made a lot of noise, and so did their partisans, and parlayed its influence well beyond. A local newscast in New York or LA can draw as many viewers...and those numbers are still dwarfed by the big networks who draw 10 times the audience. Hate radio has lost a lot of its luster as radio has lost anyone under the age of 30 and has driven away many others with all the venomous talk. The Mighty Wurlitzer no longer playes on key or in tune.

Senator Obama has kept Faux at arm's length all along...despite many who said he was foolish for doing this. His distance has helped him avoid getting dragged into the mud he knew they would fling...he's make an ellusive target. Faux now preaches to a choir conditioned and desperate for "good news" and attacking Obama...no matter how fact free or salicious is just what the network will serve up. He just won't play along...and the collapse of both the repugnican party and right wing "ideology" will relegate this network to freak show status. It'll be interesting if Murdoch will continue to let Ailes run amok.