NPR's Ken Rudin is the latest to push Obama/Nixon nonsense
October 22, 2009 9:52 am ET by Eric Boehlert
As Washington Monthly's Steven Benen noted, Rudin seems to have no idea what Richard Nixon actually did when he declared war on his press enemies several decades ago. Rudin seems to have no idea that Nixon used the full power of the federal government, including the IRS and immigration services, to screw over journalists who Nixon felt had wronged him. Rudin seems to have no idea the country's recent history, because Rudin claims that Obama's doing the exact same thing because some of his aides have publicly criticized the work of Fox News.
Rudin seems to think having an opinion about Fox News is just like ordering federal agents to dig up dirt on private citizens.
Notes Benen, "As manufactured outrages go, this is truly ridiculous, even for a shallow Washington media establishment."
UPDATED: Maybe Rudin should be a guest on Fox News, where he and the hosts can botch history together and warn about the Obama "enemies list."
UPDATED: Credit to Rudin for stepping forward to acknowledge the error of his Obama/Nixon comparison:
I made a boneheaded mistake yesterday, during the Political Junkie segment on NPR's Talk of the Nation, one that I'd like to correct right away.
That's a small victory.
I guess this still means he's a little bit left-of-center.
Another example for those who think NPR is liberal. It's no longer even centrist most of the time.
There's no evidence that people are "so sensitve". And this was not a "simple comparison".
If this were an example of lefties being too sensitive about a simple, reasonable comparison, you'd have a point. But it's not and you don't.
The Obama White House rejects Fox News because Fox News does not deal in truth, facts & journalistic integrity.
The Nixon White House rejected the Washington Post (among others) because they did deal in truth, facts & journalistic integrity.
Sooner or later, the American traditional media is going to have to accept the fact that right wing lies (as constantly pimped on Fox) is not a political stance.
Just like when Keith Olbermann & Rachel Maddow expose Fox's lies every night...that's not a political stance.
Truth & facts transcend political affiliation.
It's just that the Republican party will cease to exist if the core Republican philosophy is constantly subjected to truth & facts.
Sen Lamar Alexander was just on Andrea Mitchell's show saying a similar thing. He said something like what Obama has been doing is in some ways more troubling than what Nixon did.
When she called him on it, he tried to deny it - he made some kind of strawman argument about what Andrea had said, and then he repeated his baseless argument almost word for word.
The white house is trying to fill the role that the media abdicated. Tactics be damned.