"History has shown that once governments begin to police speech, they find ever more of it to combat. Not only does this trend threaten free speech, freedom of association and a free press, it undermines free exercise of religion." - Jonathon Turley
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Vain Thin-Skinned Thug Attacks Press Freedom
Obama promised to change the way Washington does business.In a sense he has done that – by importing the even more corrupt Chicago machine school of politics to Washington.
Obama’s administration has taken a rather precious approach to media relations, going to war with his media critics.This is reminiscent of Hugo Chavez’ style, but Chavez has taken things a bit further, closing down critical media. However, Team Obama appears to have crossed a line with its latest move.
An attempt was made to exclude Fox news from an interview with administration official Ken Feinberg.The other networks refused to do the interview if Fox wasn’t invited.Eventually Fox was invited and the interview went ahead.Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Ernest said:
“This White House has demonstrated our willingness to do a round of interviews with a range of networks but not Fox. Clearly, that didn’t happen yesterday.”
Putin, that great sponsor of a free and independent media would be proud of this attack on press freedom.
Apart from being utterly childish, and possibly unconstitutional it is time that Obama showed some respect for the people he serves, including those who disagree with.This is of a piece with his attempt to foist a rag-tag bunch of charlatans, tax truants and political extremists into high administrative office.Classic was his attempt to put tax cheat Tom Daschle in charge of health immediately after Daschle’s stint earning millions lobbying for private health industry firms.
The Democrat new broom approach can be seen in the fact that Charlie Rangel is still chair of the Ways and Means Committee despite his serious ethical issues.This is Chicago politics writ large in Washington.
Obama's ambition to be a radical reformer coupled with his administration's bare-knuckled brawler style politics does nothing but ensure that he will be one of the most divisive of all presidents.Certainly now people opposed to Obama are reacting angrily, and in some cases dishonestly (see previous post). Such is the circus of U.S. politics
That's such a load of crap, SB. Fox News has degenerated into a propaganda machine, they're not 'press' at all. Glenn Beck is predicting revolution and portraying Obama as some kind of devastating tyrant. If Fox is to be admitted to press events, then surely any partisan organisation could rightly claim press-pass privileges. I'm not sure whether you watch much Fox, but the network is completely off this planet in the deranged stakes.
On that basis, our own ABC is not a news organisation either and shouldn't be admitted to press events. Philip Adams, although less hysterical, is every bit as biased as Glenn Beck. Resident ABC half-wit git Virginia Trioli could teach Beck a lesson about partisan stupidity.
Fox is far less partisan than the Obama Slobbering Media. This was clear in the last presidential election when Fox was 50:50 in positive coverage of the two candidates. the other network news channels were 70:30 pro Obama.
Even on the opinion shows, you generally get both sides of the story as they interview pundits from either side. This rarely happens on the other channels. Sometimes when I watch CNN, you do get different points of view, but this is so rare it is jarring it happens.
Beck is out there, but he his entertaining in his own excruciating way. Certainly the Olbermaniac on MSNBC is both crazed and biased. Or MSNBC's Chris Matthews who said of one Obama speech that he felt a thrill go up his leg when he heard it!
One good thing about this exercise was the support given to Fox by the other networks. It is a victory for decency. When Obama said he was going to change the way Washington works we didn't really expect it would be by importing his hometown thug tactics. Someone needs to tell Rahm Emmanuel that we aren't in Chicago anymore, Toto!
That's such a load of crap, SB. Fox News has degenerated into a propaganda machine, they're not 'press' at all. Glenn Beck is predicting revolution and portraying Obama as some kind of devastating tyrant. If Fox is to be admitted to press events, then surely any partisan organisation could rightly claim press-pass privileges. I'm not sure whether you watch much Fox, but the network is completely off this planet in the deranged stakes.
ReplyDeleteOn that basis, our own ABC is not a news organisation either and shouldn't be admitted to press events. Philip Adams, although less hysterical, is every bit as biased as Glenn Beck. Resident ABC half-wit git Virginia Trioli could teach Beck a lesson about partisan stupidity.
ReplyDeleteFox is far less partisan than the Obama Slobbering Media. This was clear in the last presidential election when Fox was 50:50 in positive coverage of the two candidates. the other network news channels were 70:30 pro Obama.
Even on the opinion shows, you generally get both sides of the story as they interview pundits from either side. This rarely happens on the other channels. Sometimes when I watch CNN, you do get different points of view, but this is so rare it is jarring it happens.
Beck is out there, but he his entertaining in his own excruciating way. Certainly the Olbermaniac on MSNBC is both crazed and biased. Or MSNBC's Chris Matthews who said of one Obama speech that he felt a thrill go up his leg when he heard it!
One good thing about this exercise was the support given to Fox by the other networks. It is a victory for decency. When Obama said he was going to change the way Washington works we didn't really expect it would be by importing his hometown thug tactics. Someone needs to tell Rahm Emmanuel that we aren't in Chicago anymore, Toto!