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October 23, 2009
Krauthammer on the Campaign Against FNC
Posted by Dave Blount at October 23, 2009 10:00 AM
It appears even the MSM realizes that in an authoritarian state of the kind Obama has been working to impose, there is no role for a free press. Attempts by White House goons to delegitimize Fox News for running unflattering coverage by locking it out of a news pool blew up in its face when other news services had the integrity — or the survival instinct — not to play along. Voice of sanity Charles Krauthammer comments on the campaign against Fox:
The White House has declared war on Fox News. White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Fox is "opinion journalism masquerading as news."
Patting rival networks on the head for their authenticity (read: docility), senior adviser David Axelrod declared Fox "not really a news station." And chief of staff Emanuel told (warned?) the other networks not to "be led (by) and following Fox."
Meaning? If Fox runs a story critical of the administration — from exposing White House czar Van Jones as a loony 9/11 "truther" to exhaustively examining the mathematical chicanery and hidden loopholes in proposed health care legislation — the other news organizations should think twice before following the lead.
The signal to corporations is equally clear: You might have dealings with a federal behemoth that not only disburses more than $3 trillion every year but is extending its reach ever deeper into private industry — finance, autos, soon health care and energy. Think twice before you run an ad on Fox.
Comrade Obama has learned from fellow racists Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson that there is almost no limit to the cowardice of politically correct corporate America. Whisper the word "racism" and they will shell out cash by the tens of $millions. Executive yellowbellies can also be intimidated into pulling their advertising.
Fortunately, other news outfits have chosen not to be bullied.
At first, there was little reaction from other media. Then on Thursday, the administration tried to make them complicit in an actual boycott of Fox. The Treasury Department made available Ken Feinberg, the executive pay czar, for interviews with the White House "pool" news organizations — except Fox. The other networks admirably refused, saying they would not interview Feinberg unless Fox was permitted to as well. The administration backed down.
This was an important defeat because there's a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to delegitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret. White House aides openly told Politico that they're engaged in a deliberate campaign to marginalize and ostracize recalcitrants, from Fox to health insurers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Obamination Administration is modeling itself on Nixon, when a much better example would be the great James Madison, who understood that competing fractions keep tyranny at bay.
Factions should compete, but also recognize the legitimacy of other factions and, indeed, their necessity for a vigorous self-regulating democracy. Seeking to deliberately undermine, delegitimize and destroy is not Madisonian. It is Nixonian.
To be fair, how can you expect a red diaper baby like Obama — steeped in leftist ideology from his earliest memories — to grasp a concept like fair competition? To moonbats, there is only opposition, which you deal with by crushing it — "by any means necessary," to quote one of Chairman Zero's most formative heroes.
On tips from LouieLouie, nancz, BURNING HOT, and Chad.
