Boy this administration is hitting back, and they are hitting back hard. First it’s Obama, in front of graduating college students, condemning what he called demonization – the use of words like socialist to describe his administration. Now it is Gibbs going after Fox News for an interview they had yesterday where apparently (I haven’t seen it yet) the former Fema Director under George W Bush suggested the Obama administration let this oil spill get out of hand to further their green energy agenda.
Funny, I kinda wondered about that too. But I digress.
While I understand the need to communicate a coherent message to the American people, something the Bush administration many times failed to do, calling out specific news organizations only serves to put the fear of government retribution to all of them. If ABC News hears the White House going after Fox News because they interviewed someone with whom the White House completely disagrees, won’t that inspire ABC News to avoid interviews like that as well? They certainly wouldn’t want to be alienated by the White House for interviews and such, right? This is the effect I believe this is intended to have and it’s called thuggery. They use fear to mold the media into what they desire it to be. I often wonder, given how the Obama administration has made a whipping boy out of Fox News, if part of what we call media bias isn’t simply that news organizations fear the Obama administration being hostile towards them in one manner or another. I mean that is what we call media bias, but its nuanced.
They could attack the message without attacking the messenger, but they have proved over and over that they aren’t that classy.
(H/T – Breitbart.tv)
UPDATE: I was able to watch the Fox News interview with Michael Brown (linked now above), and I must say that Cavuto pushed back several times against the notion that this oil spill was intentionally allowed to become a major crisis to push their agenda. Geez, what does Gibbs want, a shouting match? See for yourself: