White House: Fox News is ‘not really news’
ByOctober 19, 2009
Senior White House aides Sunday continued their war of words with right-wing Fox News Channel, saying the cable service is “not really news.”
This is news?
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” David Axelrod is what Fox dishes out daily on is “not really news” and added “they’re not really a news station.”
“It’s really not news — it’s pushing a point of view,” Axelrod told ABC host George Stephanopolis. “And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way. We’re going to appear on their shows. We’re going to participate but understanding that they represent a point of view.”
Axelrod said Fox owner Rupert Murdoch is more concerned with making money than offering real news and information.
“Mr. Murdoch has a talent for making money, and I understand that their programming is geared toward making money,” he said.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel continued the assault during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Said Emanuel:
It’s not so much a conflict with Fox News. I suppose the way to look at it and the way … the president looks at it, we look at it is: It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective. And that’s a different take. And more importantly, is not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization.
Meanwhile, Fox News Anchor Chris Wallace said Sunday the White House is refusing to provide guests for talk shows on that channel.
18 Responses to White House: Fox News is ‘not really news’
Hoosier_CowBoy
October 20, 2009 at 10:55 am
Was Rupert Murdock P.T. Barnum in a past life? Most followers of Faux News seem to fit the Master Showmans’ famous quotation.
The only difference today is that now they not only suck, they swallow.
Sandra Price
October 21, 2009 at 11:23 am
For 50 years I knew exactly what I wanted in my Federal Government. I was a loyal Republican with hopes that free enterprise capitalism might win the pressure from the American people who clearly wanted a redistribution of wealth.
I honest thought we had learned a lesson in Vietnam. I was wrong! I took a second look when President Bush began acting like a naked Emperor and a funny man from Texas began to make sense economically as well as true American values. I signed up for cable television and the internet to look more deeply into the “voice of my past” who spoke fiscally.
At first Fox sounded good and then spent 24/7 voicing their social conservative opinions of the news. The internet gave me sermons, not news. MSNBC sounded good until they spent 24/7 covering tabloid news and evening Liberal opinions. At least I heard the opinions of the other side of the aisle. My problem was that the GOP had no points of view outside of Robertson, Falwell etc.
I ended up watching MSNBC Morning Joe and then going to the radio. I pick up local TV news at 5 pm, look for a football game or return to my books.
I am comfortable with both Fox and MSNBC prime opinion presenters. I also read Doug’s Rants and the replies as well as other articles right here at CHB Home. There is no room for a Republican Commentary writer. I tried it here and the replies were rude and insulting. It was not my writing that was insulted but a lack of political party to describe. I’m not a Christian and had to give up the GOP. I still hope for a balanced government; hoping for balanced news is impossible.
sherry
October 21, 2009 at 11:52 am
Sandra I used to watch Morning Joe. I miss Joe now that it is not on my cable. I don’t however miss that eyerolling Mika. She raises the ick factor about 100 points!
sherry
October 21, 2009 at 11:53 am
Sandra I used to watch Morning Joe. I miss Joe now that it is not on my cable. I don’t however miss that eyerolling Mika. ugh. She wants to tax soft drinks as it least to obesity. So in addition to being not to bright, she wants to control us while she is at it.
yeesh
Sandra Price
October 21, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Morning Joe replaced “The Imus Show” and had a rough time of it. Imus had a huge following and was the reason I bothered with MSNBC at all. Imus did the best book reviews and I watched with pen in hand.
I was pleased to see Mica Brzezinski as the co-host with Joe as he can be bit of a blowhard and not necessarily the model of a Fiscal Republican. I had read several of Dr. Brzezinski’s books and knew Mica had to be a member of his family. The family leans to the left and Dr. Brzezinski was part of President Carter’s Administration. He is a specialist of the Middle East.
Mica makes sense to be when it comes to children’s diets but I would never add a tax to anything. I remember when she was with CBS and did a lot of news for that television station. She is beautiful and very well spoken. I consider her the brightest of the two.
Two hours of Morning Joe is enough and I go on line to hear Imus from New York. Old habits are hard to break.
Nogood
October 19, 2009 at 7:03 am
“It’s really not news — it’s pushing a point of view,”
Absolutely!!!!! And it is astonishing how easy the American people have become “brainwashed” by this corporation.
I will say more thing to the credit of Fox, there are some good looking women employed there. CNN does not even run close in this department.
John Farley
October 19, 2009 at 8:35 am
They hire bloviators instead of actual journalists. There’s a reason that it’s spelled “Faux News”.
giving-up-in-nc
October 19, 2009 at 8:38 am
“White House: Fox News is ‘not really news’ “?
Duh!!!!!!!!!
But it was actually nice to see someone say it in public for once.
griff
October 19, 2009 at 8:46 am
Neither is CNN or MSNBC. All propaganda – all the time.
Carl Nemo
October 19, 2009 at 1:28 pm
“Mr. Murdoch has a talent for making money, and I understand that their programming is geared toward making money,” he said. …David Axelrod
Evidently “Obamunists” frown on making money the old fashioned way; ie., earning it. Rupert Murdoch for one is an arch conservative and he makes no bones about it. He’s a shrewd businessman and yes parts of his news empire thrive on sensationalistic news presentation. He provides both jobs and income to the U.S. Treasury via taxes, unlike pols and their appointees who are sucking “We the people” dry while producing little, other than hot air and promoting nation-destroying legislation.
There’s also the possibility that we are witnessing the true colors of the White House in that they even dislike “Freedom of the Press” unless the news media is sucking up to their agenda. They have the hubris to criticize those that do the same concerning their cockamamie schemes and policies.
If folks don’t like Fox programming then the solution is simple, change channels, but if you enjoy the content and thrive on such a news presentation then do just that, enjoy it and possibly achieve some balance by reading some publications with an alternative political slant so one can attain a distillate of what’s happening in the world.
Carl Nemo **==
bogofree
October 19, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Guess the White House really hates it when that pesky First Amendment thing gets in the way. Sorry, but a counter voice is sometimes necessary and it is beginning to look more and more like President WOW (Walk On Water) and his peeps really don’t walk on water.
More and more people will seek out what they read and see as their own comfort food. Too bad for I’ve always felt that what you choose not to read says as much as what you choose to read. Maybe they should just run all the Oberman and Matthews tapes all day and feel good about themselves.
MightyMo
October 20, 2009 at 2:29 pm
It’s not a matter of the first amendment or counter voices.
News agencies are given privileges to attend WH briefings and to ask questions based on being an honest news agency. Faux news is not a true news agency, but a mouthpiece for a specific political voice and view.
Ya sure, if you agree with Fox your feelings are hurt. But the truth is the truth, Fox does not do it’s best to pass on the who, what, when, where, and how of news broadcasting but instead passes its own twisted political agenda.
Warren
October 19, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Not to worry about Fox News. I’m sure Mr. Murdoch can take care of himself, and as Doug pointed out in his CNN piece, the ratings only go up.
The thing that’s of concern is the extent to which the White House has become a willing participant – nay, an instigator – of the polarization that seems to be crippling Washington.
The one thing that I thought Obama might actually accomplish was a cooling of extreme partisanship. Disappointed again.
—W—
almandine
October 19, 2009 at 7:29 pm
This type of “news” is what the White House crew is afraid of…
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/19/white-house-official-says-obama-team-controlled-media-coverage-campaign/
woody188
October 19, 2009 at 11:01 pm
All I have to say to Faux News and Mr. Murdoch is remember how you treated Ron Paul?
Paul was receiving more contributions than Rudy “The Ghoul” Giuliani and Fred Thompson but was not invited to debate or they would cut to Rudy and McCain and others making faces and laughing while Ron Paul was trying to speak. It was disgraceful but typical Faux News.
Funniest part (or saddest?), while Rudy and McCain were laughing and denying the US financial disaster looming, turned out Ron Paul was right. Can’t imagine where we’d be if Fox News had done the right thing and put forward a real debate instead of propaganda. Who says fake news doesn’t hurt?
Or take the first 30 days of war in Iraq where Fox News claimed some 90 times that weapons of mass destruction had been found. There are still people that believe there were WMD found in Iraq. It’s utterly insane!
Sandra Price
October 20, 2009 at 6:47 am
Woody, you are exactly correct. They did the same thing when Ross Perot was trying to explain our economic disasters from an unbalanced budget to the trade deficits growing. Both Perot and Paul saw the problems and our loss of respect all over the world. Neither got equal coverage on several of the cable news stations. I remember the political forums blasting the lack of sex appeal of these southern candidates.
I used to pick up Fox news after dinner and it was O’Reilly that turned me off. After I retired I began to turn on the news with my breakfast and found no television news offered anything but repetitious stuff with only a change of commercials. Now the commercials are repeats.
I went on line and ran into such terrible news coverage and political information that I got a satellite radio. I tried all the cable channels and all the political forums and even tried my own web site. There was no sanity in news or politics.
“It’s utterly insane!” right on!!
Warren
October 20, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Were that it was so.
Unfortulately, that’s not how the game is played. Mostly news organizations get access to news conferences, high-level interviews, and seats on Air Force One and other such perks when they’re nice to the administration. News organizations that don’t cuddle up get the Siberian treatment. And it’s not just this administration. ‘Access’ has long been one of any administration’s most powerful weapons in controlling the press.
—W—
sherry
October 20, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Mighty Mo your comment begs the question, do you watch MSNBC?
Do you read Daily Kos? How about HuffPo?