Obama V. Fox: Why Obama Hates Fox News

DK, a conservative over at African American Conservatives blog, opines that it's because FOX News covers facts about the Obama administration and his supporters that President Obama would rather keep hidden: "Although journalists have been punished, here and there, for their attacks, history has also shown us that the general consensus is that attacks on the President are endurable by the nation, and by the president. Further, that the consequence of attempting the alternative of suppressing the voice of the press is far worse. A journalist attacking the president is not 'un-American.' A president attempting to suppress the journalist’s right to do so, clearly, is. So, then, why is Obama doing it? At first blush, the attacks on Fox seem to be Chicago-style retribution on a critic. However, a further look reveals that there is much more to it than that. It is not Fox News’ right-wing commentary, or slant on the news that bothers Obama so much. It is Fox’s actual news reporting that has made it such an enemy to the White House."

The commentary continues: "Obama,, in my opinion could not care less about a [Glenn] Beck or [Sean] Hannity screaming in front of the camera about what an awful president he is. He surely knows that this comes with the territory. He will have supporters, and he will have detractors, the same as any president. However, along with their commentary, Beck and Hannity have an annoying habit of supporting their arguments with actual facts and news reporting. It is Fox News’ reporting – not its commentary – that revealed that Van Jones is a communist, that Anita Dunn is a Maoist, that Kevin Jennings is a NAMBLA-sympathizer, that Mark Lloyd is an Hugo Chavez admirer, and so on. It is Fox News’ reporting – with the help of that infamous pimp video shown repeatedly – that revealed that ACORN is a criminal enterprise. It is not how their commentators feel about the Obama Administration; it is how Fox News’ reporting is affecting how the American public is feeling about the Obama Administration."

More: "The tipping point for the Obama Administration came in a September 26, 2009 column by New York Times ombudsman, Clark Hoyt, called 'Tuning In Too Late' in which he wrote, 'Jill Abramson, the Managing Editor for news, agreed with me that the paper was 'slow off the mark', and blamed 'insufficient tuned-in-ness to the issues that are dominating Fox News and talk radio.' She and Bill Keller, the Executive Editor, said last week that they would now assign an editor to monitor opinion media and brief them frequently on bubbling controversies.' The Obama White House’s heart must have stopped when these words were read, because it meant the controversies surrounding them would no longer be confined to Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, conservative blogs, or books written by Michelle Malkin. Soon, stories such as the Van Jones story, would no longer be marginalized but rather become part of the mainstream press. It is one thing for Beck to speak about Obama’s ties to ACORN, the SEIU, Soros, and other left-wing organizations. It is quite another for these stories to be on the cover of Time magazine."

Final thoughts: "It is this fear of mainstream exposure that compelled David Axelrod to go on television and say to ABC that Fox News is 'not really news…[and]…other news organizations, like yours, ought not to treat them that way'. After all, Axelrod must have been thinking, who wants Fox, with its impressive history of revealing too many things that the Obama White House does not want to be revealed, getting treated like a the legitimate news organization that it is?"