Fightin' Fred Takes on Fox

(AP)

Note to Fred Thompson: Fox News Channel ain't your only problem.

On yesterday's installment of "Fox News Sunday," Fred Thompson criticized the Fair and Balanced folks for what he considered an anti-Fred tone to their coverage.

According to the Politico:

Fred Thompson attacked Fox News on Sunday for what he called a "constant mantra" that his floundering campaign for president is troubled, and he accused the network of skewing things against him.

Thompson certainly isn't the first politician to make that accusation, but he's the first high-profile Republican to do so.

The exchange has been one of the big topics in the media today, with people questioning his tactic of criticizing the channel that had given him a forum multiple times in the past.

Maybe this is the week that Fred sets the record straight?

If so, now that he has taken on Fox, he can move down the list to:

The New York Times

Newsweek

Time

Slate

Fortune

The Los Angeles Times

The Washington Post

Reason

These are but a few of the media outlets that have trotted out the stereotype of Mr. Thompson as "lazy" in recent memory. So he better get going, if he's trying to win the perception game.

I'm not going to try to gauge whether the overwhelming caricature of Mr. Thompson as "lazy" is a fair one or not. Nor am I trying to say he didn't have a reason to take on Fox. Speculation is rampant. (Nice catch, FishbowlDC.) But 'lazy' is the word that has stuck. And this, lamentably, is the state of American politics. All too frequently, the media gets stuck in a routine of oversimplifying the candidates – and it takes a grand, unprecedented strike to counter the tide.

In 2000, the Presidential Election boiled down to the "cowboy" versus that "guy who invented the Internet."

In 2004, the Presidential Election boiled down to the "cowboy" versus "the flip-flopper." (After the "flip-flopper" beat the "screamer" in the primaries, that is.)

Justly or (mostly) not, the media picks up on a meme – if there's one crack reporter on the Meme Beat, it's Rachel Sklar -- and it builds a media-manufactured momentum. That momentum is then echoed in the opinion columns and the late-night monologues and the "Saturday Night Live" sketches.

So while Fred Thompson was correct to try to recalibrate public perception – and that he just so happened to do so on Fox was a nice maneuver to appeal to the conservative audience – it's just a first step.

A quick day or two clarification campaign would be a win-win-win all around: he could (A) counter the "lazy" claims; (B) by doing so, demonstrate the claims are off-base and (C) bash the media. (Always a crowd-pleaser.)

Fred's got a lot of work ahead of him, but he's still tracking at #2 in national polls. Maybe he's got a comeback in him in the final act of his new role.

[af9115]

I am a regular viewer of Fox News. When I''m at home, it is on my TV all the time. I back up everything Fred has said about Fox being biased. Wherever you read blogs, it seems that a great number of people all say that FOX is in the tank for Rudy Guiliani. If they are so "fair & balanced" why are all the commentators comments negative for Fred? They claimed that he got in too late- who named them the authority on campaigns, they are only to report on them. They say he is lazy- I believe this is where that "mantra" may have started. As I have said to many people, anyone would envy Fred''s resume and accomplishments!

[rablady]

Ailes is shamelessly promoting his boy, Rudy for prez and Thompson''s an impediment. Usually it''s just the Dems who get the mud hurled their way, but till the primary, Ailes has to help eliminate all of Julie''s Repub opponents.

[raymo15-2009]

I''m just curious as to how OLBY would handle a challenge to the bilge he spews EVERY night, without a single challenge to any of his diatribes....''Special Comments'' anyone ??? I have never seen OLBY or Matthews have a guest on that has EVER expressed a different viewpoint than theirs. Good for Fox, and good for Thompson !!!! It is ''Fair and Balanced''....

[lanefiller1]

Anyone wanting to see some telling video (with an accompanying column) from Thompson%u2019s first week on the trail in South Carolina should give this a try:
http://goupstate.us/index.php/lanefiller/2007/11/05/fred_thompson_for_president_of_what_the_

[winghunter]

Fred was also right about Huckabee reinventing himself on abortion ( as well as illegal immigration and taxes but, that''s for another thread. );

On 2/12/95 an article Ralph Z. Harlow from the Washington Times wrote under the caption "Conservatives Hold Fire On Abortion":
"In the spirit of federalism, the proposed GOP revision also would replace the abortion amendment with a statement saying the issue should be left up to the individual state legislatures to deal with as each sees fit. ''That''s exactly what we have looked for, and if it''s left up to the states, more of them are going to put some restrictions on abortion,'' Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee said in an interview

On 4/2006 in an interview with John Hawkins on RightWing News the Huckster was talking the same way: http://www.rightwingnews.com/interviews/huckabee.php

"It would please me because I think Roe v. Wade is based on a real stretch of Constitutional application %u2014 that somehow there is a greater privacy issue in the abortion concern...So, I%u2019ve never felt that it was a legitimate manner in which to address this and, first of all, it should be left to the states, the 10th Amendment..."

BUT then on 11/19/07;
Huckabee Rejects Letting States Decide Whether to Allow Abortions
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312107,00.html

[winghunter]

Fred Thompson is absolutely right...it''s hardly "speculation".

I leave FOX on all day and night while I work where before Fred announced, FOX was swooning over him. I mean it was almost embarrassing at times. The last time it happened about 4 months ago where Brit Hume was on with Carl Cameron reporting and he was building Fred up BIG.

The day after every single personality on FOX went negative and they''ve been negative for a solid 4 months. It was shocking to see the transition.