Fox News: 100 days of "opposition" to Obama
Fox News has reason to rejoice as President Obama marks the media-manufactured milestone of his first 100 days in office. The conservative cable network's ratings are sky high under the new Democratic president. Yes, it looks like it couldn't be happier serving as "the voice of [Obama's] opposition," to paraphrase Fox News senior vice president Bill Shine.
Not surprisingly, Fox's success as the president's "opposition" stands in stark contrast to the way Americans now view Obama. According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, Obama enjoys the "best job approval rating at this point in 20 years," with 69 percent of Americans approving of the job he's doing. Further, the poll found that "half of Americans now [say] the country's headed in the right direction," as opposed to the scant 19 percent holding that view just before Obama's inauguration.
So, what gives? Apparently, Fox's definition of "fair and balanced" has nothing to do with the practice of good journalism -- where fairness means truth and balance means exploring all sides of an issue. No, it is only offering up the "yin" to America's "yang."
Earlier this month, Fox even threw a nationwide party -- a "tea party," if you will -- to celebrate its "opposition" to Obama and his policies. That's right. Despite encouraging viewers to "say 'no' to biased media," Fox News jumped the shark with dramatic flair, airing dozens of segments imploring its audience to get involved with tea-party protests across the country described by the network as primarily a response to the president's fiscal policies. In all, Fox aired 107 ads for its coverage of tea-party protests. Over a 10-day period, you were more likely to see Fox pushing its revolt against Democratic Washington than you were to see commercials featuring that familiar troupe of singing pirates extolling the virtues of free credit reports.
For all the fun and games on display at its tea parties -- cries of fascism, tyranny, and socialism abounded, as did wild conspiracy theories -- Fox hasn't abandoned the perverse "they're coming to get us" mantra that has underscored its coverage of late.
Fox News has gone to tremendous lengths mainstreaming the sometimes violent, revolutionary doomsday rhetoric of the far right, which used to be confined to the extremist fringe. Appealing directly to the feelings of anger and anti-Obama paranoia in its own audience, Fox hosts have become louder and meaner than anything whispered in the shadows of previous presidencies.
Witness Fox News newcomer Glenn Beck, the network's conspiracy-theorist-in-chief, who, on a recent broadcast, imitated the president pouring gasoline on an "average American" while saying, "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? ... We didn't vote to lose the republic." A fan of bizarre imagery to be sure, Beck also portrayed Obama and Democrats as vampires "going after the blood of our businesses" before asking, "Who's next?" and suggesting we "drive a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers."
Aside from Beck's sideshow theatrics, other Fox News hosts, anchors, and reporters seem to be reading from a unified set of talking points that begin and end with scary sounding "-isms." If Mary Poppins had "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," Fox has "social-fasci-commun-Nazi-McCarthy-Marxism." With great gusto, they've used terms like socialism, communism, fascism, and Marxism at least 1,400 times since the inauguration in their never-ending assault on progressives.
Meanwhile, hosts like Sean Hannity have taken to playing the role of victim with remarkable aplomb. Like many of his Fox News brethren, Hannity worked himself into a lather this month over a declassified Department of Homeland Security report detailing the threat of a potential increase in right-wing extremism. Hannity informed his viewers that "critics of the report say their definition of a right-wing extremist sounds awfully close to somebody who might simply just disagree with the Obama administration." It's telling that folks like Hannity would read a report about the threat posed by right-wing fringe extremists and think, "Hey, they're talking about me!" Don't forget, like a similar report released about left-wing extremists, the groundwork for this report was laid by the Bush administration.
When they haven't been going to war against progressives, they've been playing defense for conservatives and the previous White House.
During a recent broadcast of his top-rated show, Bill O'Reilly took a moment to feign concern over a potential bipartisan investigation into the torture policy of the Bush years. You see, he was concerned it might -- wait for it -- "polarize the country." I kid you not. Those are his words. Shortly after O'Reilly expressed his concern, text appeared onscreen stating: "The battle lines are drawn. Americans need to take a side." Which side will it be for O'Reilly, the self-styled master of conflict resolution -- the pot or the kettle?
What the remaining days of Obama's first term hold for Fox News is anyone's guess. If the first 100 days are any indication, however, this right-wing carnival ride is far from over. After all, ticket sales are booming.
Karl Frisch is a Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog, research, and information center based in Washington, D.C. Frisch also contributes to County Fair, a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the Web as well as original commentary. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook or sign up to receive his columns by email.
During a recent broadcast of his top-rated show, Bill O'Reilly took a moment to feign concern over a potential bipartisan investigation into the torture policy of the Bush years. You see, he was concerned it might -- wait for it -- "polarize the country." I kid you not. Those are his words. Shortly after O'Reilly expressed his concern, text appeared onscreen stating: "The battle lines are drawn. Americans need to take a side."
That's classic. A bipartisan investigation would be polarizing. I would think "unifying" would be the word there, since moderate Republicans could make a show of good faith in the rule of law. If there's going to be a conservative fringe that objects to this sort of thing, there's not much you can do about it, and no reason to care about what they think.
What I really love about that clip is O'Reilly talking about how torture was done to protect us, and how liberals would argue with people who said that. The intentions behind the torture really aren't the question. It's the torture itself. Apparently O'Reilly has this bizarre idea in his head that liberals are upset that people are being tortured for fun, and if we would only understand that it was being done for our protection we would say "OHhhhh, alright then. Carry on."
Yes. Their suggestion that we don't want to protect the USA from terrorists is the offensive thing here. The idea that we reject the only potential solution, torturing suspected terrorists, is another offensive thing. O'Reilly's pretense that he's an independent without an agenda is a really offensive thing!
That's just the kind of guy O'Reilly is Brabantio. No Spin Zone and all. Sigh. Haha.
"Appealing directly to the feelings of anger and anti-Obama paranoia in its own audience, Fox hosts have become louder and meaner than anything whispered in the shadows of previous presidencies." They ARE meeting the needs of their audience, but they should drop the "Fair and Balanced" lie if they're going to continue to do that. And then for O'Reilly to suggest that the Obama Administration is responsible for the great divide in our nation is laughable. It's those on the right who are dedicated to being uncooperative, not Obama. It's the right who are haters, not Obama. It's O'Reilly who is fostering division, not us.
"It's O'Reilly who is fostering division, not us"
hmmmm
Karl - This is an outstanding piece. FOX News is dangerous, they almost helped overthrow a Democratically elected President in Bill Clinton in 1998 with its anti Clinton propaganda, they played a role in the "Election" of Governor Bush and now they are aligning themselves with Tea Parties and Racism toward our President. It is a dangerous slippery slope we are in.
That tea party really was quite a success, wasn't it? Seems the only thing the right does worse than winning is losing...
Oklahoma Man Arrested for Twittering Tea Party Death Threats
In a series of tweets beginning April 11, CitizenQuasar vowed to start a “war” against the government on the steps of the Oklahoma City Capitol building, the site of that city’s version of the national “Tea Party” protests promoted by the conservative-leaning Fox News.
“START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!,” read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. “After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!,” he added five minutes later. Then: “Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps.”
Hayden’s MySpace page is a breathtaking gallery of right wing memes about the “New World Order,” gun control as Nazi fascism, and Barack Obama’s covert use of television hypnosis, among many others.
"Barack Obama's covert use of television hypnosis" is a theme that should be explored, since this is a classic case of projection by the Faux crowd. After all, it's known that people become passive receptors while watching the teevee. The right-wing commentators repeat their phony themes over & over, working themselves up into a Faux lather over imaginary injustices.
Their stupidity is probably very mesmerizing to the folk who already believe that "liberals" are the evil in our society.
Beck, O'Reilly, Shawn, Brit etc. study old dracula movies to learn how to hypnotize their audience: You WILL believe that Obama is a communist-facist-socialist muslim.....look deep into my eyes....
Thanks for the kudos JLyons.
Let's have more tea parties !
Any shroom tea?
The scary part is that, unfortunately, these right wing extremists now feel as if they are in the mainstream somwehere. As if on one side there is liberals and on the other side there are people who believe that Obama is planning on instituting concentration camps. That's the balance they see. When the nuts on both sides of the equation (and there are nuts on both sides of the spectrum) are marginalized at least there can still valid disagreements and discussions among adults. Unfortunately, the adults in the right-wing are not home and there is not adult discussion to be had with fanatics who call everyone they disagree with over a 3% change in a marginal tax rate to be communists, fascists, etc. Insert your own Mao, Hitler, or Stalin reference here.
The funny part is that it seems that the Republican party is intent on following Fox News and Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity right off the cliff. They sold part of their party generations ago to the Dixiecrats in the South and became a whites only party. Then they sold another chunk of their soul to the religioug zealots a generation ago and became a religious party intent on confusing personal morality with national laws. Now, they are finally taking the final step into the fringe and joining what's left of their party with those that stockpile weapons for the day we have to take over the goverment armed with rifles.
I grew up Republican (libertarian in social philosophy and conservative fiscally). I am a 30-something year old white male who is lucky enough to make more money than I need for my family to live comfortably. Compared to most, I am probably rich. I am exactly the kind of voter that the Republicans used to own. I never voted against a Republican presidential candidate until G-Dub. I cannot and will not, in good faith, support this party and their insance rhetoric. They are hurting the national discourse and, in doing so, killing the party I once knew. Farewell, Whig Party, farewell.
I also grew up Republican. Nixon's lies and vindictiveness started my disenchantment...then cheney/rummy and others from his era seized power under shrub and continued their manic control-freaky psychotic behavior. May all the lies and deceit come into the light of day.
I always had good debates with my republican friends in High School. But then came Kissinger and he angered the arabs in 1972 and suddenly it cost me a lot of money to fill up my 63 Plymouth. That is when i started to look a little differently at the republican party and their leader, Nixon. the Kent State shootings sorta cemented my anti republican views ( and my vote ) More recently, when Cheney named himself vice-president right after pres Clinton decided to leave the Joint Strike Fighter contract award to the next president, I knew then something was up and it didn't smell good..
For me, it was GM and a certain individual that made me decide to switch. Especially the way GM did my mom wrong when my dad died (he owned a GM dealership).
But, even Cheney and Rove and G-Dub initially bothered to attempt to blend into the mainstream to get their ideas through. They didn't come out defending torture and threatening secession and defending the extremist groups that the DHS (or whichever government agency) targets to investigate as dangerous.
In the last year or so there has been a definite change for the right. They are now embracing the fringe as their own. They have decided (led by Fox news) that anything is OK as long as it can be justified through ratings. Lies, distortions, the most polarizing name-calling any channel has ever used. It is truly amazing that Limbaugh, Fox, and their ilk have decided to become obsolete in any true political discussion. Well, maybe that is not amazing, but it is amazing that the politicians on the right have decided to follow them. As long as they have their few million in audience to justify ad sells, who cares that they no longer have any real power in this country. Truly amazing.
-- Carter was praised by the media for "a discipline of tempered steel," something few would say about him today. Carter "by popular judgment" at the time had "done handsomely" at his first 100 days. Few historians today would agree. Which only serves to point out how snap judgments, once again, don't always stand up to the test of time -- something every journalist contemplating a "100 days" article on Barack Obama would do well to remember. -- huffpo
And wasn't that a wonderful 4 year ride.
President carter can go anywhere in the world and be welcomed. President Bush 43 can't.
Compared to whom? Reagan? G-Dub?
the whole 100 days thing is just dumb anyway. people love round numbers, 10 year anniversary, 20th high school reunion. Essentially it's meaningless as some benchmark for anything. It gives pundits and the media a chance to play teacher and hand out some arbitrary score, nothing more.
I agree with that. It is certainly arbitrary and says very little about a president's legacy either way.
However, the right's reaction (or over-reaction) to Obama in only 100 days says alot about them.
...the mass media. What are they? They're huge corporations, massive corporations, linked up with even bigger corporations. They sell audiences to other businesses, namely advertisers. So when you turn on the television set, CBS doesn't make any money. They make money from the advertisers. You're the product that they're selling, and the same is true of the daily newspaper. They're huge corporations, selling audiences, potential consumers, to other businesses, all linked up closely to the government, especially the big media. What picture of the world do you expect them to present? - Noam Chomsky, Sparrow Talks with Noam Chomsky
Part of the report on the conservative extremists that was distorted said:
"rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat,"
It's been a few years but one of the cable channels (History?) did a good analysis of how wars have always produced problems afterward when the trained soldiers went to find work. Mercenary armies followed the end of large wars more often than not. Due to our standing army, the number of former specially trained soldiers who are available has provided mercenary groups with the best trained employees money could buy.
The extremists are not only going to exploit the skills and knowledge of these returning vets, they will very likely prey on the most vulnerable - victims of PTSD, etc.
I have come to the hope that this ludicrous effort by FOX, along with the GOP's obstructionist activities, will simply drive more people from supporting the crazy ones and drive more nails into the coffins of the disintegrating factions. Only issue is who will be left and what will they do?
Just to be clear. I believe the numbers of our vets or former military that would participate in either the extremist groups or mercenaries to be very small.
I am concerned that returning vets, too many who are not getting PTSD diagnoses and treatment, are unable to find or hold jobs, will be at more risk to turn to whatever and whoever can give them anything to alleviate the misery they come home to.
You have it right, no need to apologize. Those of us who get it understand. The few who don't? Won't matter either way.
A new corporate slogan for Faux:
Why be "Fair and Balanced" when there's so much money in "Lies and Stupidity"?
What I found most surprising was the Right's reaction to the report. They absolutely took it presonally .... as if their plans had been uncovered. That's a hell of a lot of guilt to carry. No wonder they spend so much time projecting. But that doesn't get rid of guilt. It only grows it.
Observing this is like slowly driving past a never-ending wreck!