White House and Fox News go to war
White House communications director says Fox News is 'at war' with Barack Obama
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By inthenews. |  |
Tuesday, 13, Oct 2009 12:17
By Matthew Champion.
A new front has opened up in the war of words between Fox News and the Obama administration after the White House dubbed the broadcaster a "wing of the Republican party".
White House communications director Anita Dunn gave several interviews this week where she pushed the message that when Barack Obama appeared on Fox he was "going on to debate the opposition".
Speaking to CNN, Ms Dunn elaborated: "They take their opposition research, put it on air; let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."
Earlier this year star Fox commentator Glenn Beck accused President Obama of being racist towards white people, while the broadcaster failed to screen a primetime address from the president to a joint session of Congress on his healthcare reform plans.
But Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has hit back at the allegations it had gone to "war against Barack Obama".
Senior vice president Michael Clemente said it was "astounding" the White House could not distinguish between news and opinion programming.
And Fox host Chris Wallace described the current collection of White House officials as the "biggest bunch of cry-babies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington".
Commenting, Larry Sabato, director of the centre for politics at the University of Virginia, said the White House offensive against Fox came amid criticism of the president from within his own Democratic party.
"The world was expected to be transformed in approximately a month and it just didn't quite happen that way," Mr Sabato said. "So if you're in that position and you need to rally your base, you need to find a common enemy.
"They're going on the offensive to rally the base and the base will rally to them because they hate the 'right-wing noise machine' too," he said. "Everyone needs an enemy in politics. Everyone needs a devil figure."