White House's Anita Dunn says FOX News is a wing of the Republican Party
By John Amato Sunday Oct 11, 2009 5:00pm
Do ya think? Not only did Anita Dunn take a really strong stand for President Obama over the Roger Ailes run FOX Noise Propaganda Network, she also called out the conservative-teabagger movement in its entirety.
Dunn: A week ago many conservative commentators had been rejoicing in the fact, celebrating in the fact that the United States didn't get the Olympics, one week later they seem to be somewhat bitter at the fact that an American President was awarded the Nobel peace prize. So I think people will draw their own conclusions abut the reflexive negativity on the part of some commentators regardless of what happens...
Dunn held back no punches and stated fact. That's nice to see.
Howard Kurtz was pretty comical with his questions, but he was trying to provide some pushback, I guess.
KURTZ: You were quoted this week in Time Magazine as saying of Fox News, it's opinion journalism masquerading as news. What do you mean, "masquerading"?
See what I mean? But he did have to ask that.
DUNN: Well, you know, Howie, I think if we went back a year ago to the fall of 2008, to the campaign, that, you know, it was a time that this country was in two wars, that we'd had a financial collapse probably more significant than any financial collapse since the Great Depression. If you were a Fox News viewer in the fall election, what you would have seen would have been that the biggest story, the biggest threats facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and something called Acorn, when the reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party.
Yep, that sums up FOX Noise. Then she delivered the knockout punch.
Last month, President Obama appeared on five Sunday morning talk shows, including Univision’s Al Punto. He rejected Fox, however. Dunn revealed this morning that Obama did not appear on Fox because of its reflexive, partisan opposition to Obama. Obama will go on Fox in the future, Dunn said, but when he goes on, “he’s going on to debate the opposition.”
And then after Kurtz asked her if the president would go on FOX ever again, she said this too:
Dunn: That when he goes on FOX, he understands he's not going on, it really isn't a news network at this point, he's going to debate the opposition and that's fine.
The opposition, I loved that.
Howard asked someone from FOX to appear on Reliable Sources, but they refused and instead issued their usual statement. They'd rather have BillO speak to his audience than have anybody debate the facts -- especially, of course, on another network. FOX gives their usual argument that while they do have news, people really rely on their opinion programs. That's stunning really. MSNBC has their lefty hosts too, but during the day, you'll hear all the news and not MSNBC's opinion version of the news.
Kurtz did his best to find a few reporters that he thought weren't corrupted by Ailes so he mentioned Major Garrett. Do you think he's fair...Please say he's fair...Oh please oh please oh please. And Anita then calmly explained why they didn't go on Chris Wallace. Good for her.
And I told Major quite honestly that we had told Chris Wallace that having fact-checked an administration guest on his show -- something I've never seen a Sunday show do. And, Howie, you can show me examples of where Sunday shows have fact-checked previous weeks' guests, and I'd be happy to see those. We asked Chris, for an example, where he had done that to anybody besides somebody from the administration in the year 2009. And we're still waiting to hear from him.
She didn't stop there.
Dunn: Let's be realistic here, Howie. They are widely viewed as, you know, a part of the Republican Party. Take their talking points, put them on the air. Take their opposition research, put them on the air, and that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news network they way CNN is.
Kurtz did his best to try and get her to differentiate between the Beck's show and their little news nuggets, and she wouldn't back down. Where's the John Ensign coverage? she asks Howie. Hmmm, you won't see it much -- if at all -- on FOX. And that's only one example out of thousands.
She didn't let up!
Always remember republicanism is a mental illness!
So is democratism. They are equal
Oh my! Grayson-talk is starting to get under everybody's skin. What fun!
Gotta love it!
An entire wing?
I would say more like a guest room bathroom for unwanted guests.
much less seperate bathrooms for guests only.
They prevent leakage. Always.
"But let’s not pretend they’re a news network they way CNN is."
I'm a self proclaimed dyslectic but that's not right. :p
They're all masquerading as news shows. FOX just happens to be the most outspokenly egregious in its political leanings.
You might want to think CNN is different, but since the iraq war, the only thing ive noticed is CNN becoming more like FOX.
i dont want a left or a right leaning news source. i want an objective news source. theres only so much bulls**t in the day i can take.
They are all corporate owned and cannot operate honestly. They are all part of the corporate propaganda machine.
republicanism is a mental illness!
And, until We The People rise up against the Corporate Megalomaniacs who've usurped our nation, the 'news' will be a relic of the "good ol' days" for which so many of us pine...
CNN= FoxLite
Anita Dunn was doing a fine job until she said that very line "But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is" and that's where she clearly went into typical DLC/Dimbulbcrat smoke blowing up the tailpipes of our Pathological Narcissistic entertainment conglomerate/defense contractor/Crony Capitalist owned, controlled, operated, and homogenized farce of a press corp. If she hadn't said that particular self-serving line, Howie just might've snorted a crushed up Wellbutrin or Prozac during the break or even slit his wrists LIVE on the air. If it bleeds, it leads ...
The very fact that the partisan citizen media/blogosphere exists in the first place (and continues to enjoy its very justification for existing for the moment) is because any press corp that becomes owned and operated by Capitalist Hollywood entertainment megaliths and defense contractors that then turn around and -- after paying a protection racket fee to the two dominate Capitalist political parties who themselves turn around and repeal The Fairness Doctrine and deregulate the industry as favors so that both are protected and insulted from the meritocratic sting emanating from the mouths of the great unwashed public masses -- soon becomes a press corp that can't do its job due to the utter paralyzing fear of losing its job.
Therefore it has nowhere else to go but down, down, down scraping the very bottom of the sociopolitical cesspool as it eventually becomes a clap-happy, persistently vegetative, Schaivotastic press corp that can no longer tell the freakin' difference between a FREE press and a STATE press -- exactly like the Pravda and the Volkisher Beobachter before them.
i would have loved to hear the conversation a couple weeks ago with david axelrod and roger ailes. remember obama had a meeting with murdoch after he won the nomination last year. and fox got worse. just keep freezing fox out, let them marginalize themselves even more.
it's not a news network it's a cartoon network.... and foxnation is a hate site...
I hope that the President ignores them for eight years.
Surely you guys have to be a little embarrassed at this whining by Anita Hill.
Fox is the only network that provides any pushback at all on this WATB White House, aptly described by Chris Wallace and Kirsten Powers as the biggest bunch of crybaby whiners they've ever seen from a presidential administration.
To have called up Joe Scarborough and tell him to quit being an asshole after he scoffed at Obama winning the Nobel Prize only proves what thin-skinned babies these folks are.
Since 'WATB' is probably the one most-used phrase at this blog, it's a little perplexing you guys would actually not only defend but cheer this wimpish behavior, LeftandLeft.
This administration has a majority in the House and a super-majority in the Senate, yet they act like they're being persecuted by this one cable news outlet and it's just not fair.
If it wasn't the usual Democrat party, I'd say it was unbelievable, till you remind yourself who you're dealing with.
...did you catch Chris Wallace's exclusive interview with former (Democratic) president, Bill Clinton?
And I had plenty to say about it here. I don't think you did, or if you did, I don't remember your name at all.
I think Chris Wallace appreciates and respects Bill Clinton doing what he did a whole lot more than he does Obama having his advisors go on the airwaves bitching and moaning about the only news network that isn't giving him daily ego massages.
Then I guess this statement is hooey:
"If it wasn't the usual Democrat party, I'd say it was unbelievable, till you remind yourself who you're dealing with."
Face it, dennis, the ones who are whining are the screamers at fox, having lost the key to the backdoor of the White House that bush gave them for eight years.
It's so much fun watching our President give them the cold shoulder.
And so much fun to watch the democrats and the white house squirm and whine when someone calls them on their blatant lies.
to watch the crazy trailer trash fringe of your party drag the party to the ninth ring of hell. Is it true that Beck is calling for a boycott of Sweden and Norway to protest the Nobel Committee? What does that entail? No more trips to the steam room? Has anyone told Larry Craig?
You say;
“Fox is the only network that provides any pushback at all on this WATB White House, aptly described by Chris Wallace and Kirsten Powers as the biggest bunch of crybaby whiners they've ever seen from a presidential administration.”
Pravda Fixed fox Provides push back, really, you call fixed fox, opposition research and GOP/RNC Talking points… “push back”, it’s propaganda, from the hard Right and the extreme Right/Haters and hate groups and Paid Lobbyist Wing, have a 24-7 Platform to spew.
Did I lump the legitimate Tax Protesters and Spending Protesters with the Hate Groups and extreme haters, Nazi, KKK, Para Militia, yes I did, they all have been marching and protesting together and the entire group, including the “Birthers, Deathers and Tea Baggers, collectively they see each other and nothing wrong with supporting each other and gathering together to Protest and March (together).
And I’ve seen them gathered together since the McCain & Palin Rallies and all of the Right from Moderate to Hard Right have never, “PUSHED BACK, or SEPERATED FROM THESE HATERS.”
Fixed fox, see’s no distinction and promotes 912 haters and gives 24-7 platforms and talking points to there news propaganda talking heads, spouting mixed news reporting as fair & balanced.
Since Pravda fixed fox, is not even remotely close to fair & balance, Obama treats them as they are clearly the “OPPOSITION,” and I act accordingly.
This is not by-partisan at fixed fox, this is us and them
but you sound an awful lot like those 'far Left internet fringes' who
that Obama's advisor was talking about.
Which is to say, a little crazy.
Funny that you cons can't decide if liberals are elitists or all unemployed. I actually get dressed every day and go to my job in the education field. Hopefully my work pays off for someone down the road. Maybe this country wouldn't be so divided had two elections not been stolen and an illegal occupation started.
bush & co constantly complained about all the news media EXCEPT faux.
But we all know facts have a liberal bias.
Quite into projection, dennis? You just keep swallowing those bipartisan red herrings promulgated by your wee corporatist masters. Each of your posts that I've seen reveal both your bias, and your propensity for regurgitating exactly what your masters want you to believe.
That's "Democratic Party" you moron. Go somewhere else.
is spot on. the glass is almost always half empty regarding President Obama and the (d) congress. i can't watch fox, even though i feel it's important to hear both sides. they don't represent both sides fairly. they really have an obvious bias for business/corporations over "we the people". GO twins.
I come here so I don't have to watch Fox. It is important to hear both sides but fox doesn't do that so I come here to find out what is said. Fair and balanced my- you know what.
That Lucy sure gets mad whenever Charlie Brown refuses to try and kick the football...
"MSNBC has their lefty hosts", BUT they are fact based in their opinions and don't just make shit up and engage in extreme exaggeration and hyperbole like the FAUX hate ranters. The facts do seem to have a liberal bias.
Yes, but their lefty's also admit where they're coming from; they're not pretending to be "fair and balanced", yet ironically they are for the most part!
The MSNBC on your TV must not be the same as mine. I can stomach Fox much easier than MSNBC.
Welcome, new troll. You've upped the likelihood you'll experience cognitive dissonance, which could help you slip the surly bonds of your corporatist puppetmasters. Of course, you'd have to overcome your fear, which can be an insurmountable obstacle for wee Angry Group members like yourself. In your case, this seems unlikely, given the solidly cemented confines of your hate.
Barry has gotten on my very last nerve.
Kurtz seemed to be surprised at the idea that Fox's news is biased as well as their "opinion" programming. It was as if he'd never heard of the concepts of bias via story selection, omission, framing, etc.
That can't be true, can it? That's the most fundamental, often-seen method of media bias. A "media critic" who is unaware of those basic tactics is like a dentist who's never heard of plaque. It's absurd.
Kurtz bashed MSNBC in the interview. I suppose this could've simply been a poke in the eye to a competing network, but the brain cell challenged zombies on the right love to bash everyone except Fox for being liberals (including CNN which they dub the Communist News NetworK).
MSNBC has the audacity to have Olbermann, Maddow, and Schultz, therefore MSNBC gets branded as being liberal, apparently ignoring Scarborough and his ilk, the O'Donnell bimbos, and other obvious righties dominating the programming.
MSNBC is far worse than Fox.
You're one of those paid trolls. Well, durn, the people who're paying you sure aren't getting their money's worth...
The answer is fuck you, Howie.
think Murdoch gets it, and this relates to the fact that he is still desperately trying to make newspapers viable businesses when the problem with the papers is the exact same problem as Faux News.
See http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2... the latest article in Vanity Fair about Murdoch's attempts to make readers pay for online content.
Newspapers, many of them long ago, started doing what Fox is doing. It started with the Opinion sections and then morphed into story selection/omission, survey cherry-picking, etc. Our own Review Journal here in Las Vegas metro never misses an opportunity to bash public employees, especially teachers. They go out of their way to select news content that furthers that agenda and even conduct their own little shitty polls of 100 people and tout them as if they were news. As my husband is a teacher we will not allow them to count us as readers. Their publishing and editorial staff has made it quite clear how they feel about government employees and it will be a cold day in hell before an advertiser can think we can be reached through that publication.
The Review Journal is not the only paper that does this and this is why they are going the way of dinosaurs. I can't imagine we are alone in this, we want news, not opinion masquerading as news and we are smart enough to see how their bias shines through in all other pages of the paper. My sister-in-law dropped her subscription to the Arizona Republic for similar reasons.
You know, many people like to talk about the audiences for some of these Fox shows like they mean something. 2.5 million people tuning in to something in a nation of 304 million really isn't shit and when you look at the demographics: aging boomers, poor, etc. it becomes even clearer how Fox's influence will be waining.
See this link for more info
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2009/05/05/avera... on Fox viewer demographics. Murdoch's viewers are like him, old, cranky, male and seriously out-of-touch. It won't be long folks, they aren't winning the youngsters.
FoxNews=GOPTV
I guess that shows how badly CNN is doing that they can't even afford to buy Kurtz a dictionary. They should try a used book store, they're usually relatively cheap there.
He's trying to get Dunn to clarify and expand on points by pretending he doesn't know just what she's talking about.
That'd be akin to purposefully dumb. Lot of that going around the networks, one in particular.
Kurtz likes his job..it's much safer to say, "Oh really, what do you mean by that?" than it is to say: "Whoa! You can say that again!"
Of course it's the propaganda arm of the GOP. Roger Ailes was an unknown tv producer until Nixon discovered him and put him to work on his '68 campaign. Ailes is a GOP operative, nothing more.
Everything he is, was, or ever hopes to become is tied up in the GOP.
Is it just me or is anyone else perturbed by the fact that the WH COMMUNICATIONS Director used the chronic verbal crutch of "you know" dozens of times during this interview.
Personally, I can speak quite effectively for minutes on end using proper grammar and patterned well thought out speech. Why are these alleged "professionals" so inept and speaking in complete sentences.
You know?...
...my 16 year old is incapable of uttering a phrase without using "like."
It's, like, annoying and I can't, like, get her out of the habit.
On Dallas buses it seems to be m----r f--king this, and m----r f--king that, with occasionally a m----r f--ker thrown in there for effect.
Sometimes I'm tempted to ask them, "So you like f--king your mother a lot?
For that matter, network news is only marginally better.
A few moments ago, CNN's "senior (is there a junior) business reporter" spent her entire segment puffing the health insurance industry's latest study that the world will end should the United States get any type of reform. Costs will rise astronomically. The Democratic rebuttal was dismissed in two sentences.
Did she earn that unaddressed #10 envelope or the midwinter trip to Dominica? Of course she did, and with a straight face.
... had an FBI agent on the stand. He referred to him as Agent [insert name here] and the FBI agent said 'no, I'm Special Agent [insert name here.]
My Dad asked him if there were any agents in the FBI that weren't special.
He replied 'no.'
My Dad said 'then what makes you special?'
[laughter]
The agent went on to talk about his quals and FBI skooling. He ended up with 'and we go to jury school.'
Dad: 'And what did they teach you in jury school?'
agent: 'They taught us to tell the truth.'
[pause for effect as Dad looks around]
Dad: 'And how long did that take?'
[laughter]
BTW, Dad won.
A whole table full of Fed prosecutors & assistants ... and there was just my Dad and his client at the defense table in a beautiful federal courtroom with stained glass and high ceilings and oak rails.
Could it be that Grayson has actually started something and the feeble ones are going to catch on ? It would do Obama and the Dems wonders if they'd stop being door mats and start fighting back with the facts and the truth , God knows the Repugs and the right have given the Dems plenty of ammunition , just play hard ball for once and start telling it like it is , if it offends the Repugs ... good !As for Fox they are the Republican version of Pravda , unfortunately there are a lot of dumb and ignorant people in this country who don't have enough sense to figure that out , logic and reason are not their strong points .
I would like to see Obama and the Dems start to use facts and truth also.
Well, that's rather stating the obvious isn't it? Why do people dance around the issue? Fox News is a propaganda network for the Republican Party, plain and simple. They don't try to hide it, so why not just call it what it is? When are people going to stop treating them like they're some sort of legitimate news network? Seriously. Start calling them on each and every lie. That's what the MSM should be doing. Stop giving them a free pass, and for God's sake don't let them play the victim card, which I've been seeing lately, like it's them against the world and "why does everyone hate us so much" (that one was courtesy of Billo). Enough is enough.
... know the difference between opinion and news"?
I DON'T THINK SO.
Not according to O'Reilly and Hannity, even van Susteren, who claim to be reporting 'FACTS', and if you listen to the selected emails O'Reilly reads, those who watch FOX definitely get their NEWS from FOX.
And, we don't need misanthropic mouthpieces like Hannity, O'Reilly and Limbaugh whining about how "put-upon" is poor FOX and their vile corporate sponsors!
Two weeks ago, a Latina told me that she gets "all her news from FOX," and that "FOX is the only news I trust"!! (OMG, WTF?!?!) This woman went blank when I asked her about Murdoch, and the corporate sponsors of FOX. Literally, she had no clue. And, I am sure there are many more like her.
I merely asked her about Murdoch, et al., then inadvertently ended the entire conversation when I averred that I do not trust ANY of the broadcast media to give us unbiased, factual news, and that I think FOX is the most biased of them all. She gave me a horrified look and left.
For this network to try to claim that they are journalists would be laughable if it weren't so sad. They went to court in Florida essentially for the right to lie, as they are not a news organization, Glen Beck their Golden Boy has said publicly "a lie repeated often enough soon becomes the truth."
Their other claim that they are the only network to push back against all the other networks that are in bed with the white house is clearly a huge misconception. I have seen many so called journalists from many different media and most of the televised journalists, starting in Bush's reign, soft ball their questions to rethuglicans, they foirget the basic rules of journalism and strive never to make a interviewee uncomfortable.
It is laughable for them to claim rightiousness when they have been caught on film inflating both their numbers and inciting crowds for the camera. Fair and Ballanced? I think not. News? definitely not.
Creepy and insidious. Absolutely.
So you are saying that Fox adnauseum can say what ever they like, spew lies and propaganda, and generally fund some of the so called tea baggers and their should never be a push back to set the record straight.
I don't think so. For too long we have not squelched the record. We ignored the talk. And athe talk only grew bigger. And louder and the original message morphed into derangement for a lot of sheeples.
I personally like facts and hate lies. God hateth a lie. Its in the bible. Faux noise doesn't mind lying, it is in their best interest to do so. But it is in the nations best interest to come out with facts over retoric.
... mediamatters.org and get a year's worth of reading, video-watching and audio-listening..
I love media matters. Itsd great.
^This is the same "news organization" that went to court for the right to lie on air. I prefer my news from far more credible sources.
You prefer your "news" dredged in mud and spun into something totally abhorrent to intelligent people.
Not even Fox is sticking to the pretense of "Fair and Balanced" anymore.
http://www.outfoxed.org/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=67370...
Most people know better.
Your comment is like a lot of comments on the so called "right". Childish and extreme. Insulting someone of intelligence that you disagree with. Very childish, you may go back to your sandbox now.
Fact: People who believed bush's lies about WMDs and Saddam's connection to 9/11 were most likely to watch faux news.
Fact: ailes and the bush WH would send talking points to faux news that they reported AS news.
Fact: Only you WATB's are scared because you listen and believe faux news.
One minor point you made I could agree with. All of the cable and broadcast news outlets are feeble. How can a complex issue be covered in 30 second news bites?
That's why I get my news from various sources, typically print because they can do in depth reporting of facts.
You just wanna be in the choir of paranoid teabaggers and have your mind made up for you and reinforce your homophobic, xenophobic, and democratically elected minority viewpoint.
I'm just guessing; are you white, male, middle aged, unemployed?
Pointing out the obvious is now considered a bold attack. Hmmm read that somewhere before...
The next step is to pull Fox New's press credentials. White House and Capitol Hill. Yes. Is every advocacy group given press credentials? No. Should pull them in a New York minute.