Former “liberal commentator on Fox” suggests White House ease up
Journalist David Corn is advising the White House: Don’t play a game of chicken with Fox News.
Corn, in a blog on politicsdaily.com, describes himself: “I’m watching this fight as no disinterested observer. For years I was a rare commodity: a liberal commentator on Fox News.”
Corn offers this advice:
Yet whatever Obama and his aides are attempting, they’re doing it with a heavy hand. That’s probably a mistake. Fox is a distraction, an irritant. It’s true that Beck has been scoring boffo ratings — topping 3 million watchers on special nights — which is good for cable but still not a gigantic audience in a country this size. Tom DeLay had seven times or so that amount of viewers when he did his “Wild Thing” on “Dancing With the Stars.” (There’s no solid figure for Rush Limbaugh’s audience, but a decent estimate is that he draws about 14 million listeners a week.)
Rather than react in a huffy manner to Fox — which provides an alternative reality to outraged conservatives who feel lost in Obama’s America — the White House ought to opt for what I’d call strategic derision. Good-natured belittling — but belittling, all the same — would go further than indignation, even if the indignation can be justified. That is, don’t demolish Fox, demean it. Gibbs should chuckle when a Fox correspondent asks a Foxian question. After all, if Fox is not to be taken seriously, don’t take it seriously. And by all means, don’t send Obama officials on Fox shows. But if a White House official is asked about this, he or she should reply with dismissive humor, not anger. (”We’d rather be reading the Senate Finance Committee’s health care reform bill.”) Obama is well-skilled when it comes to deploying a light-but-cutting touch. That ought to be terms of engagement for his aides involved in the Fox skirmish. Fox is not important enough to be treated as Public Enemy No. 1.
Bashing the conservative network could rally Obama’s base. But Obama, for good or bad, did promise to rise above partisan sentiment and the game playing of the Washington political-media circus. With a clever use of strategic derision, Obama and his aides could do this and still stick it to the network. Fox is just not worth a game of chicken.
Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
I agree that any administration that “takes on the media” probably should not do so. Especially a creature like the Fox Network — if one in going to wallow in the sty with the pigs, then one cannot complain about the mud.
Just more whining from Obozo. He’s in over his head and doesn’t know what to do so he lashes out. Typical behavior of a four year old. Typical behavior of a thug politician.
–It is said you are revealed by your friends, and your enemies.
–He befriends and talks up third world potentates and dictators, envies Mao’s deconstruction of the Kuomintang, and revels with the Hollywood effete.
–Obama then chooses to make enemies with the few people in the media who actually question his agenda, and policy decisions, and calls them racists and haters, and tries to destroy them.
–Can you say typical Chicago-style thuggery?
” Fox Network = the sty with the pigs ”
Ahhh… more of the issue-oriented, high-level reasonings from the draft dodger
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Osama spent more time with NBC this week than he did with Gen. McChrystal. That’s why he’s a moron.
Fox Network = the sty with the pigs ”
Ahhh… more of the issue-oriented, high-level reasonings from the draft dodger
Draft-dodger? I didn’t realize that Dick Cheney made this statement?????
I see that those who cannot discuss an issue without resorting to personal invective and perjorative are out in force.
For Bobz: filing for Conscientious Objector status and staying around to fill in the paperwork,and, take the heat from sanctimonious folk like tough talkers like Dick “Fire Ready Aim” Cheney (who hid behind his student deferment).
War is usually a terrible “solution” to a problem. Coming from the stance of non-violence requires that one choose to stay, not run and hide while blathering on about how tough one is.
Plus, why did you assume that it was only Fox news that the pig sty applied to. I did not draw that equation you did. A situation of like recognizing like? Hmmm…
Especially a creature like the Fox Network — if one in going to wallow in the sty with the pigs,
— RHarnack
2:05 pm October 22nd, 2009
Plus, why did you assume that it was only Fox news that the pig sty applied to. I did not draw that equation you did. A situation of like recognizing like? Hmmm…
— RHarnack
3:22 pm October 27th, 2009
Huh? What? Oh nevermind.
“Huh? What? Oh nevermind”
Okay, I will not mind.
Dr-Debunk, Exactly when did Obama call anyone “a racist and haters”? NEVER! Fox compared itself to the editorial page of a newspaper. If you have an ounce of intelligence, you would know that the editorial page of a newspaper is NOT part of the News Department.