The backlash against the White House's attempt to intimidate Fox News has begun, said Steve Krakauer in Mediaite. ABC's Jake Tapper grilled President Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, in a Tuesday briefing, asking him why it was appropriate for Obama aides to say Fox is not a legitimate news outlet. The White House is clearly on a "dangerous path," as Tapper's pointed questions won't likely be the last (watch a Fox News report on Jake Tapper's Fox defense).
Where was Jake Tapper, said Steve Benen in Washington Monthly, back in May 2008 when the Bush administration was doing the same thing to MSNBC, accusing it of "blurring the lines between 'news' and 'opinion'"? And where was The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus, who is calling the Obama White House's treatment of Fox News "Nixonian"? The Bushies' complaints against NBC News were "baseless, especially as compared to Fox News'" blatant parroting of Republican talking points—but nobody called George W. Bush "Nixonian."
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