Conffederate
Confederate

October 23, 2009

Obama's War on the Media

Considering last night's failed attempt to censor Fox News, it wouldn't be irresponsible to wonder if the Obama White House had a direct hand in this Media Matters memorandum dedicating resources to the destruction of the only significant dissident mainstream media outlet in the United States.

An official at a Democratic-leaning organization sends on a memo the group Media Matters is circulating today to progressive groups, calling Fox "a lethal 24/7 partisan political operation" and rallying a coalition of groups to join the White House assault on the network.

"The danger to progressive causes and the institution of journalism has become too significant to ignore," says the introduction to a memo by Media Matters founder David Brock. "At Media Matters, we believe it is of paramount importance that progressive leaders have the information necessary to understand exactly what Fox News has become. We hope this brief memorandum will assist you in reaching your own decision on how best to engage this threat."

A co-worker asked me to explain to him why the White House was targeting Fox.

Essentially, the White House views FOX as a gateway between the distributed network reporting being done by the blogosphere and the traditional media.

Fox amplified the charges against Van Jones, leading to his ouster from his White House appointment before other media even reported on the controversy. Fox also promoted the investigation of a pair of filmmakers that exposed a series of ACORN offices as being supportive of tax fraud for the purposes of child sex trafficking. The embarrassing string of videos—with more waiting in the wings that have yet to be broadcast—forced the Democrats in Congress and private donors alike to sever ties with the group, which was trained by the President himself and with which he maintains close ties. Likewise, Fox has helped to focus attention on other radicals in Obama's government with profiles of Administration officials and hangers-on that the President would prefer unreported.

Along with a handful of other responsible watchdog media, Fox News has been the conduit that led these scandals from the political blogosphere to the mainstream news, and the Obama Administration is attempting to retaliate against Fox News in the strongest possible way. The goal is to both stop Fox News from reporting stories damaging to a floundering Presidency, and to warn other news outlets that they will be targeted by Obama and his allies if they step out of line and report those news stories deemed detrimental to the President.

Leaking the Media Matters memo to the Politico was no accident. It is a carefully-calculated assault designed to terrorize journalists, pundits, newspapers and networks into silent obedience. The goal is to censor all speech against the Administration, by threatening retaliation against critics by the deep-pocketed activist groups that function as shock troops.

In their hearts, the President and his allies share the distaste of a free press which stains all would-be tyrants. They will push back hard against being exposed, and the plot to pummel Fox News into silence is only a small part of a Administration's larger plan to bully the media into submission.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at October 23, 2009 12:45 PM
Comments

I have little doubt there is coordination between Dear Leader's politiboro and Media Matters. I wonder, though, who is controlling whom? Since MM is a George Soros front and I am pretty sure that Obama is a wholly owned and managed by Soros, I am not convinced that it isn't Media Matters that is controlling the White House.

Posted by: Steve Hamerdinger at October 23, 2009 01:50 PM

When I first looked at Ben Smith's piece, I thought "good on Politico's resident Obama apologist for exposing the sham." Then I scrolled down... and down, and down.

Ben Smith wasn't exposing the administrations nefarious supporters, he was promoting it.

The old joke about stopping to put on running shoes not to outrun the bear but to outrun your companion is interesting, and sometimes appropriate. Until one recognizes that the bear will inevitably be hungry again. I suspect that the some in the legacy media have recognized this, but they have too often sold their integrity that their colleagues will ignore their retarded epiphanous clarion calls.

Posted by: bains at October 23, 2009 11:13 PM

The famous quote; "I may disagree with what you say,but would defend to my death your right to say it" has been replaced with "I disagree with what you say,so shut up or I will destroy you and your family,friends and co-workers" by the 0bama mis-administration.
Is this the kind of change Americans voted for?
Will americans vote for it again?

Posted by: firefirefire at October 24, 2009 08:59 AM

Or, as turns out to be the case, this was simply Fox making up a story.

http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2009/10/it-is-official-fox-fabricated-the-denied-access-story-.html

Posted by: Jim at October 24, 2009 04:35 PM

This guy Jim isn't quoting a credible source. He is using a URL to a VERY leftist...leftister blog.

Then again, Jim is probably a disenchanted soon to be disenfranchised Obama voter.

Posted by: foxfire2009 at October 24, 2009 07:29 PM

For sure no one should believe anything they read on a blog, especially not one that has a political slant. Oh wait...

Posted by: Jim at October 24, 2009 08:31 PM

For sure no one should believe anything that Jim posts here; just sayin'

Posted by: emdfl at October 24, 2009 09:08 PM
http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2009/10/it-is-official-fox-fabricated-the-denied-access-story-.html

Wrong. To their credit, the CBS Evening News reported it. Go to You Tube and search for "CBS News' Chip Reid on Fox News and the administration."

Larisa Alexandrovna is useless on her best day.

Posted by: Pablo at October 24, 2009 11:43 PM