“Unity? Equality? Harmony? Not with the Fox News Freezeout”
By HHR | September 21st, 2009 | Category: Featured, General, HHR Contributors, Opinion/Reviews | 14 commentsby Lenny McAllister
Before I continue on, I know that people are going to say that I don’t like President Obama. That I’m jealous or some sort of a hater. Better still, I’m going to be called a “sell-out” or some “paid Negro” by “The Man” to oppose the first Black president. It’s been said before (even when I complimented Mr. Obama, both both and after he became president.) It will happen again.
With all that (falsehood) said and out of the way, I do have to say that the more I see from this president, the more I just don’t know…and don’t like.
A lot of people are saying the same about Obama’s current media blitz. I don’t mind the president being in the media so much. He knows that he is his strongest brand at this time, so if he must play that advantage, so be it. That doesn’t bother me.
In fact, President Obama is doing a litany of public addresses and appearances, starting with the September 9th address of Congress that became known as the Joe Wilson Coming Out Party. Since then, the president has been front and center on the issues of race, wars, and health care proposals, including a line-up of Sunday morning show interviews that, literally, included a line-up of Sunday political show hosts waiting in turn for opportunities to ask the president the same list of questions.
And everyone acquiescenced – that is, everyone what was invited.
By leaving off the White House’s pet peeve – Fox News – the president’s camp again loses some credibility for the long haul whenever the issue of fairness and openness come up.
That does bother me, for every time we as a nation hear about how President Obama looks to bring people together despite delineations and barriers, many of us within the nation (particularly those prone to the aforementioned name-calling) overlook things such as the Fox News Freezeout.
Now, I know that Fox personalities such as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity have been thorns in the side of the Obama Administration. Calls proclaiming the president as a racist not only seem foul and controversial at best, but also come across a little misguided considering the president’s family lineage and deft serenade of the issue of race since his presidential candidacy pre-2009.
To the everyday guy on the street, a combination of open tension and controversial statements from Network Fair and Balanced would be plenty enough to keep the Fox News folks at bay, even if that includes Chris Wallace, one of the few on the network that generally attempts to hide his conservative leanings.
Then again, Mr. Wallace did (on “The O’Reilly Factor”) call the Obama Administration the biggest crybabies he’s ever dealt with in politics. Again, with the common man, this would be plenty enough reason to stay away.
However, this is not a common man we’re talking about, is it?
Not only are we talking about the President of the United States, but we are also talking about a man that campaigned on the message of unity, harmony, and open debate, even with people that openly disagree with him.
It was a message that he delivered on “Meet the Press”, “Face the Nation”, and “State of the Union” Sunday – even as he shut out Fox News.
And it’s a message that started on September 9, a message that called for unity and bipartisianship, even as he drew the proverbial line in the sand as he slammed Republicans for “spreading misinformation” via their campaigns of opposing universal health care.
It makes Mr. Wallace’s comment seem both off-the-cuff and, perhaps, riddled with a little bit of truth.
Moves such as the Fox News Freezeout show that this rhetoric of unity and openness from the president more often than not proves hollow when the rubber meets the road. It’s hard to talk about unity and harmony when you are only willing to play with the kids that look like you on the playground.
It’s hard to talk about openness and equality in a respectful debate at this historic time when you don’t engage some players in the game for ideological reasons – or even invite them onto the playing field at all.
If ever there was a time to confront the “lies and misinformation” from the conservatives, it was now – and it was to be done on Fox News, just as it was on the other networks. Sometimes, the best way to neutralize or defeat a perceived bully is to confront him on his own turf and on his terms. Fox News – with its pundits and its stories – is conservative home turf.
By continuing this on-going battle with Fox News, the White House lost any momentum in the argument that it sides with those pursuing fair, open, and direct debates on health care and others issues impacting America at this time. Further, by shutting out Fox News, the White House has placed the presidency on the same level as the conservative media, an unnecessary move that only plays into the perception of “Obama vs. Conservative America”, particularly at a time when the president is losing moderate and independent support.
Not a good move.
The presidency and any part of the media can never be seen as peer authorities by the American people on any issue. After all, one is accountable to ratings and advertisers. The other is accountable to all citizens of the nation as well as to the nation’s allies. The harm of personalities doubling as legislators does not compare to the harm when legislators attempt to be media rock stars.
Once the perception is cemented that any faction of the media is strong enough to champion an “us vs. them” battle (even as an underdog) with Washington or, in particular, the White House, it becomes engaged in a fight that it can never win. The White House is in the business of government.
The media is in the business of…well…media.
Perhaps that is why the White House avoided “Fox News Sunday”, although I doubt that President Obama and his staff saw Fox News as a foe they were incapable of dealing with. Instead, it comes across as more of a punishment for bad behavior and intolerable positions.
Of course, by the end of this latest tour by the president, Fox News will let you know that only a socialist Big Brother such as the Obama Administration would shut out one network while inviting the rest – of course, in a conspiracy to control the media and keep everyday Americans away from the truth.
I’m sure Rush will chime in to say that the “state-controlled media” was used once again by the Obama Chicago Machine – and that only a few, independent patriots (including himself and his buddies on Fox News) are free of the control to give you the truth.
Unfortunately, President Obama’s Fox News Freezeout ruined a chance to address these allegations and bring us closer to unity and harmony as a nation as we continue to face such a difficult time. Instead, leaving Fox News out in the cold will only serve to stoke the fire of the conservative media.
Lenny McAllister is a political commentator and social orator featured regularly on Fox Television in Charlotte, NC, on XM Radio and Sirius Radio, and online as a syndicated writer nationally. McAllister is an socially-conscious conservative with a mission to make positive changes to the status quo within politics, social issues and other issues that hamper our American way of life.
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I have to disagree with you Lenny. Despite the Fair and Balanced sloganizing, the Fox Network has quite purposefully positioned itself as a conservative news brand. Wallace can’t on the one hand say he’s playing the fair and balanced newsman role and then go on the O”Reilly show to rip the administration as cry babies. More widely, the Fox Network can’t actively promote its twin attack dogs Beck and Hannity who savage the administration and the President daily and act as though its non partisan.
The other networks have their own biases. Fox might be perceived as more honest in having their biases out front but for the fact that their claims to be fair and balanced fly in the face of their clear conservative bent.
In truth, its a pox on all their houses as none of these networks is worth a tinker’s dam in terms of information content. Most Americans with half a brain consider all of them worthless as neutral umpires and watchdogs of government. In a country where you can’t consider the media to be of any worth in giving you information with which to monitor the government, its not a big deal that the President freezes out a network. The country’s information needs are met from a multitude of other sources far better than the cable channels. Most Americans see this as just another element of the partisan warfare in Washington and a bit of crybabying from Fox that they get the brush off from an administration they spend the majority of their day savaging.
I think you are an intelligent person that offers a different point of view. I think it’s courageous to say how you feel about the issues just to have others agree, disagree, or just insult you. Just like Obama can’t escape being called a communist, socialist, dictator, racist, etc., unfortunately you can’t escape being called a sell-out and a hater.
I agree Obama the President should have gone on Fox News. They wouldn’t be able to use such hyperbole and buzz words while interviewing him. (On Meet the Press 9-20-09, Boehner had to admit that Obama was NOT A SOCIALIST despite what was being said by the Republicans)
However I can image that it’s hard for Obama the person to go on a channel that calls him unpatriotic, a communist, a socialist, a fascist, a dictator, a racist, says he wants to destroy America and hates America, calls Michelle “Obama’s Baby Mama”, says Obama and Michelle (because they gave each other some dap) like fisting and says it’s a terrorist fist jab, and even joked about killing Obama.
Obama is a socialist, look up socialism, look up socialist look up socialized medicine look up……….
Please the hard questions weren’t asked and I quess the president was afraid of not answering for fear of looking worse so its always better not to appear. Fox is biased but no less than msnbc………………… or is it that the ratings are what they are looking at?
by not being fair the President appears to be hidding something………………………what is he hiding? the truth? what part of America does he want to completely transform? Can we expect Prez to request term limit extensions if he is re-elected?
We have to remember that Wallace advanced the “Death Book” theory (the charge that the end-of-life pamphlet revised under Bush promoted veterans to contemplate suicide). Had Obama gone to his program, it would have given credibility to a program given to promote conspiracy theories (besides been in the bottom of the Sunday ratings).
This is a case of “damn if you do, damn if you don’t”. Had Obama gone there, he’d faced openly hostile moderators more interested in distorting sound bytes than on actual dialogue.
@SBM: “You keep repeating that word, but I don’t think it means what you think it means.” Taken from Wikipedia’s page:
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Socialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with an egalitarian method of compensation.
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I still don’t see how is Obama’s administration acquiring the means of production and making them public.
There are liberal sell outs, just as there are conservative sell outs. The political ideology doesn’t factor in completely into being a sell out.
Openly hostile should not be a problem to the chosen one………
So its ok to be openly in the “BAG”
WHAT are they hiding? The truth? it can’t be the lie that’s already out……..
SOCIALIST……..SOCIALIST……..SOCIALIST………. CHE posters in campaign offices, communist friends, communist pastor and a czar that is a communist do we need anything else or maybe we water board OBAMA a get the truth out of him (A JOKE) for those can’t or won’t laugh when the shoe is on the other foot
lets do this, how about we tax movie profits and over paid athletes and over paid recording stars at 85% to pay for health care reform I’ll vote for that ( another bad joke) and see what hollywood thinks about that?
oh and by the wty FIDEL took over big businesses first and eventually got around to the corner store. & Barack HUGO Obama is following the same script
SBM does a great work of showing us why the President didn’t miss anything on skipping Fox’s program: aversion to facts, tendency to make up charges, reliance on distortion and hearsay, compulsion to revise history in their favor, lack of reliable and verifiable evidence and incapability of having a constructive discussion. When you need to solve problems, you handle it with the adults, not the children.
SBM, where’s the evidence that Obama is acquiring the means of production and making them public?
Goods or services? And why do you demand answers to your questions but consistently fail to address the obvious? Do you know or have you ever heard of anyone who has surrounded himself with so many radical, communist individuals and is not one? Obama has more communist around him then Fidel at a rally in revolution Square in Havana.
Do we have to list them? Again?
What was the president afraid of? He sat with Bill O’Reilly and was he treated fairly? What changed?
Let’s start with what’s good about our Health care system and keep that.
I guess taking over 20% of our economy with socialized medicine doesn’t count as taking over the means of production and making them public? Do you realize Obama has nationalized more of the economy that the self Hugo Chaves….. In less time…… You can argue it was necessary but was it a bailout of the car industry or the Unions?
Did you ask a question worth answering, SBM? FWIW, Hollywood, as MSM, are actually quite conservative in nature. It’s only the right wing nuts’ need to vilify something that tags them as something they aren’t. If Hollywood had been remotely moderate, the USA would have in theaters the movie “Creation”.
As I said, when you need to solve problems, you handle it with the adults, not the children.
Again, show me the evidence where Obama is acquiring the means of production and making them public. Otherwise, all you’re touting is hot air.
You accuse me of “consistently fail[ing] to address the obvious”, and yet, it is you who dodges, smokescreen and muddles the conversations. I mean, it took me 6 comments over almost a week to get a muddled answer from you on the “The Obama Health Care Speech: One Republican’s View” post made about two weeks ago here.
Muddles answers about a girl in Brazil…… where abortions are illegal except for a few instances and you make that the center piece of your argument…. What about The 45 Million “birth Control Abortions”? What about responsibility? It’s more often the case where a young couple chooses to correct an indiscretion by KILLING a Child. But I do not ask “worth while” questions.
You sound like a politician, and dodge questions better than BHO…….. Are you on the payroll………
The evidence is in the bailout of the Unions… Sorry I mean the Car industry… waits….. Not bail out….. OWNERSHIP……. Yes an owner hires and fires and Pres.
Obama fired a CEO if I’m not mistaken…….. What about the proposed…. but not yet written…… but has to pass before…… can’t be made public………because we’re stupid……..but this was supposed to be different…….but f**ck what I said on the campaign trail…………..GOVERNMENT takeover of the MEDICAL INDUSTRY!!!!!!!!!!!! T W E N T Y P E R C E N T of our economy……….. Again let me type slowly so you don’t get confused Why get rid of what works for 80 % of the population in hopes of maybe fixing , if I pray hard enough and read nice speeches ….the whole thing toooooo “I hope this shit doesn’t turn into the post office”
I disagree with VAN JONES but respect him for telling the truth …after which the administration threw him under the bus….. Let me ask you……. What is “Liberation theology” and how the hell do you site in a church for 20 years and not know your pastor is a communist? Who teaches and believes in Liberation theology?????? Don’t worry… have fun… the adults will be in charge in 15 months………. The freaks (communist) come out at night……………………
This is your problem, SBM. You go from ramblings on abortion, to birth control, to ad hominem attacks, to conspiracy theories, to hyperbolic accusations, to Van Jones, to Rev. Wright to Liberation theology to more ad hominem attacks. It lacks coherence of message, intended to confuse and smoke screen other people, hoping that they’ll fall for the trap and let you lead the discussion. It’s quite an old tactic, mind you, but one well known and easily countered.
I did opened it a little by mentioning the other blog post, but I didn’t consider the question I was asking to be related to the topic of this post, so I didn’t mention it.
However, honor where honor’s due: you did some research on the topic I was talking.
Obama asked GM CEO to quit. The CEO could have refused to quit, just like NY Gov. Pataki did this week.
I’m not a politician, nor I’m in anyone’s payroll. I’m actually an independent, not a Democrat nor a Republican. I *win* if the Republicans start making sensible solutions to people’s problems, to challenge the Democrats. The Republican refusal to present real solutions is heartbreaking, since it gives the Democrats a blank check.
When the facts are on your side argue the facts , if not argue fairness if all fails throw yourself at the mercy of the court. Again you ask for answers but give none, you ask for details but offer none. What is OBAMA afraid of that he did not offer FOX an interview? THE truth, the script, the teleprompter? He’s been called a communist before and he’s been misquoted and misquoted by and with the best of them so what is he afraid of?
When the facts are on your side argue the facts , if not argue fairness if all fails throw yourself at the mercy of the court. Again you ask for answers but give none, you ask for details but offer none. What is OBAMA afraid of that he did not offer FOX an interview? THE truth, the script, the teleprompter? He’s been called a communist before and he’s been misquoted and misquoted by and with the best of them so what is he afraid of?
Sorry for the delay in answer. RL got in the way.
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Always argue the facts. If I’m right, fine; if I’m wrong, I’ll accept it. I’ve been wrong before, and I’ll be wrong in the future. The best way I can aid the discourse is by accepting my errors as quickly as possible.
If you ask about why I’m not answering your questions on the abortion, birth control, Van Jones and whatever-fuss-Republicans-rose-this-week-unrelated-to-the-topic questions here, it’s because they are unrelated to the topic at hand (in this case, whether Obama was right of skipping Fox).
But I did skip one related question, the GM-bail out. As I said, Obama asked the CEO to quit. He could have refused. What’s more important, the only way for anyone to take control of a company and take decisions is by buying at least 50% + 1 shares in the company. Otherwise, all you are doing is recommending an action, and it’s up to the Board of Directors and the shareholders to make the decision.
Why did Obama skipped Fox? IMO, there are several compelling reasons:
1) Wallace pushed the Death Book nonsense in his very own show. Had GWB gone to the media to give interviews, and if he had decided to skip a media outlet that pushed the Truther nonsense, or some equivalent, *I would have applauded him*. In the GWB’s hypothetical case, and in Obama’s case, they don’t have any reason to legitimize a news outlet that publishes nonsense as if it were news.
2) Fox isn’t interested in actual debate of ideas, but in distorting sound bytes. When all that’s on the line is your political career, there’s not much to lose when going to hostile programs. When we’re talking about the life of millions of Americans, as is the case of health care reform, there’s a lot to lose for being prideful.
3) Wallace program is at the bottom of the ratings at his hour (the same hour as the rest). If you’re going to cut someone out of the loop, the least viewed program is the best candidate.