White House Takes Aim at Fox News

(AP)  White House advisers pledged on Sunday to book administration officials on Fox News despite claims by the president's inner circle that the cable network is a GOP mouthpiece whose programming "is geared toward making money."

Last week, White House communications director Anita Dunn said Fox News operates "almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." On Sunday, Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama's chief of staff, said, "It is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective."

In response to the criticism, Fox News executive Michael Clemente on Sunday accused the White House of continuing to "declare war on a news organization" rather than focusing on issues such as jobs and health care.

"The door remains open and we welcome a discussion about the facts behind the issues," said Clemente, senior vice president of news, in a written statement.

Fox News commentators Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity have been strong Obama critics, and Bill O'Reilly has taken tough looks at the administration. Obama avoided "Fox News Sunday" when he visited five Sunday morning news shows last month; three aides carried the administration's message on Afghanistan, health care and the economy this Sunday to ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC, but not Fox; and a recent White House blog post accused Beck of lying. Beck has called Obama a racist.

Karl Rove, a Fox News contributor and former White House adviser to President George W. Bush, said the Obama administration is trying to demonize Fox News for asking questions officials do not like. He compared Obama's approach to that of President Richard Nixon, who included journalists on an "enemies list."

"This is a White House engaging in its own version of the media enemies list," Rove said on "Fox News Sunday." "And it's unhelpful for the country and undignified for the president of the United States to so do."

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said Fox News shouldn't be treated as a news organization. "And the bigger thing is that other news organizations, like yours, ought not to treat them that way, and we're not going to treat them that way," he said.

Still, Axelrod said administration officials would appear on the channel. He shrugged off News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch's remark to shareholders last Friday that since the White House began criticizing Fox News commentators their ratings have risen.

"You know, I'm not concerned. Mr. Murdoch has a talent for making money, and I understand that their programming is geared toward making money," Axelrod said. "The only argument Anita was making is that they're not really a news station. ... It's not just their commentators, but a lot of their news programming. It's really not news. It's pushing a point of view."

Emanuel appeared on CNN's "State of the Union."

[Franco1470]

"White House advisers pledged on Sunday to book administration officials on Fox News despite claims by the president's inner circle that the cable network is a GOP mouthpiece whose programming "is geared toward making money."

You mean they are trying to make money? Those rat bastards, who do they think they are?

Nice to know the CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and the lot are not into making money. That is way they are going broke and want a government bailout. Mark my words, this is on the horizan. State news coming to a hometown near you.

What the MSM talking heads have going over them is the people are only going to take so much.

[rmonroe401]

Sloughfoot ,
Ok, I will debate them. Here is my source of debate:

http://www.newshounds.us/

[zloh]

Guess it was OK when tv news chanels picked on GWB and Sarah?

[rmonroe401]

"Guess it was OK when tv news chanels picked on GWB and Sarah?"
So you are then admitting that Fox news picks on Obama? Wait, I thought they just reported the news fair and balanced????

[zloh]

Guess it was OK when tv news chanels picked on GWB and Sarah?

[just_an_american]

Does anyone remember Sam Donaldson or Dan Rather, this isn't new however I guess Major Garret is the Sam or Dan. i am just surprise there isn't a Dan or Sam at CBS.

[just_an_american]

Does anyone remember Sam Donaldson or Dan Rather, this isn't new however I guess Major Garret is the Sam or Dan. i am just suprise there isn't a Dan or Sam at CBS.

[maxcoffee-2009]

It is clear that Fox is a biased opinion outlet. That should be clear to anyone? I mean they hired Mike Huckabee after he dropped his bid for President. Why didn?t they offer John Kerry a show? Or Kucinich?
They express outrage and claim indoctrination when one class of school children sang a song about President Obama. Yet, in their ?reporting? of the story they failed to mention that school children were singing about President Bush and FEMA. How is that balanced?
They might have an up tick in ratings but that doesn?t mean that people are watching because they think that Fox is correct. They could be watching for falsehoods. They could be watching because they like watching Glenn cry. They could be watching for many reasons?
I read their stories because I want to see how different they are for the rest of the media outlets, not because I trust them.

[Sloughfoot]

Either debate them or ignore them-Name calling and finger pointing is for the weak and uninformed so pick your poison.

[credibility2]

Cable stations are supposed to make money. Exactly what is the real issue here anyway? The WH wants to have total control of all media outlets and refuses to work with the only dissenting station, Fox. The WH is being hypocritical. Free speech isn't what the WH wants. They want no dissension, no one questioning, no one criticizing, no one challenging and no one condemning. The WH is acting like a bunch of sill-butt spoiled over-indulged entitled brats and needs to have a ginormous timeout.

[qpublic]

Leftist's as usual, can only tolerate dissent when they are dissenting(Castro,Chavez,Barbara Streisand, Barack Obama). God forbid any one disagree with them. "They must be evil doers, don't they know that we leftists know what's best for everybody? And what's best for everyone is for us to be in charge and everybody else shut up." No thank you Comrade Obama.
The rest of the media is treating this as a spat between two political spectrum's, but my God, could you hear the screaming and flailing if even Bush-1 or Reagan tried this on CBS or NBC? We'd still be cleaning their diarrhea up.