Obama's war with Fox News

What the White House gains and loses by escalating its feud with the cable news channel

The White House clearly isn't ready to make peace with Fox News, said James Gordon Meek in the New York Daily News. President Obama's advisors "chose napalm" to fuel the feud between the administration and the 24-hour news channel. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN that Fox is "not a news organization," and Obama's closest political advisor, David Axelrod, told ABC's "This Week" that Fox News "is really not news. It's pushing a point of view."

It's wrong for any administration to try to bully the press into submission, said David Zurawik in the Baltimore Sun, but Obama's drubbing of Fox News is particularly disturbing. For one thing, it's hypocritical to accuse Fox of being biased while giving the "highly-partisan," pro-Obama MSNBC a pass. And sending out heavy hitters like Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod to talk about Fox—instead of, say, finding jobs for the unemployed—shows that the administration is worried more about its image than governing.

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