FOX News- Smeared and Valanced

FOX News is whining because the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs made disparaging remarks about Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck the other day. FOX News is trying to pump this up into something worth talking about by drawing comparisons to the Nixon era “Enemies List”. Both commentators have been relentless in their smear campaign against the Obama administration, and Beck was responsible for bringing down Van Jones, the president’s Environmental Advisor. Van Jones chose to resign rather than be a missile magnet for conservative predators like Beck. He could have fought it, but he chose to minimize negative press for the administration. It was a loss for progressives. He was an effective agent for change. The conservatives knew it.

As to the Nixon thing, their comparison to Nixon’s “Enemies List” is absurd and almost laughable. Nixon created a political enemies list and treated it as top-secret information. He enlisted former CIA agents to work directly for the White House staffers, Halderman and Erlichman, who conducted illegal search and wire tapping against a large group of reporters, liberals, and other suspicious anti-war activists. It was clandestine McCarthyism. By contrast, the Obama administration is openly discussing their displeasure with FOX News for all the world to see and hear. There is nothing remotely clandestine or illegal about it. But why even get into this schoolyard rumble?

Frankly, when I first heard about the White House tangling with FOX it bothered me. I thought this would be a win-win situation for FOX and lose-lose for the White House. I still do. This feels like the high school drop-out calling the principal names from outside the school, then having the principal get into a shouting match from the school window. Really Mr. President, please don’t be drawn into this pig fight. It does little to maintain the high road toward civil behavior- and raises suspicions about darker, more sinister motives for the tangle- like an “Enemies List”.

And while the White House gets a sound bite, FOX can milk the issue 24/7, and they are. One reporter called it the gift that keeps on giving for FOX and the gabinators. My advice to the President is back off, and get on with the more important matters of state. So when he has his next press conference he should invite FOX and let them ask a question. Why not? To an informed audience, the questions are certain to be no-brainers anyway.