NY Times disappears Fox's history of attacking Obama as “racist” and a fascist

Written by Jeremy Holden

Published

In a September 21 article, The New York Times reported that President Obama “gave five back-to-back television interviews broadcast on Sunday,” but engaged in an act of “Medici vengeance” and showed “a rare sign of frustration, and payback” by not “speak[ing] to 'Fox News Sunday.' ” The Times reported that “the presidential slight” occurred because “Fox did not broadcast Mr. Obama's health care speech to Congress on Sept. 9,” but the Times did not address that Fox News hosts have maligned Obama as a “racist” and repeatedly compared him to Hitler.

NY Times claimed Obama engaged in “Medici vengeance” in “boycotting” Fox News

From the September 21 New York Times article:

Mr. Obama declined to discuss his proposals on the one outlet guaranteed to find fault (or change the topic to the Acorn scandal). And that made his star turn look less like a media blitz than Medici vengeance -- Fox did not broadcast Mr. Obama's health care speech to Congress on Sept. 9, so Mr. Obama did not speak to “Fox News Sunday.”

That omission was not as tactical as it was telling: a rare sign of frustration, and payback, by a White House that prides itself on diplomacy and an even keel. Mr. Obama sought on Sunday to bring a little order and civility to a debate that grows ever more heated and shrill. But by boycotting, the White House seemed to be getting caught up in the kind of hostilities that increasingly divide Fox News Channel from its rivals.

[...]

But Mr. Obama chose to make a statement -- and raise a distracting fuss on Fox News -- by declining to speak.

And Fox milked it. When he was not talking about Acorn, Mr. Wallace bemoaned the presidential slight, asking, “Whatever happened to reaching out to all Americans?” He told Bill O'Reilly that the White House aides were “a bunch of crybabies.”

Apparently, the feeling is mutual. “We figured Fox would rather show 'So You Think You Can Dance' than broadcast an honest discussion about health insurance reform,” a White House deputy press secretary told ABC News on Saturday. “Fox is an ideological outlet where the president has been interviewed before and will likely be interviewed again; not that the whining particularly strengthens their case for participation any time soon.”

Beck and Hannity have accused Obama of race “problem[s]”

Beck: Obama is a “racist” and “has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture.” Beck has said: “This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy -- over and over and over again -- who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture -- I don't know what it is. But you can't sit in a pew with Jeremiah Wright for 20 years and not hear some of that stuff and not have it wash over.” He later added, “I'm not saying that he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. He has a -- this guy is, I believe, a racist. Look at the way -- look at the things he has been surrounded by.” [Fox News' Fox & Friends, 7/28/09]

Beck: Obama's desire to “settle old racial scores” is driving all legislation “getting pushed through Congress.” According to Beck, “Everything that is getting pushed through Congress, including this health care bill, are transforming America, and they are all driven by President Obama's thinking on one idea: reparations.” Beck later added that Obama's “goal is creating a new America, a new model, a model that will settle old racial scores through new social justice.” [Fox News' Glenn Beck, 7/23/09]

Hannity: “Do the Obamas have a race problem of their own?” Sean Hannity asserted on Fox News' now-defunct Hannity & Colmes: “As more is learned about Barack Obama's positions, his past, and his affiliations, it seems that the 'change' candidate has all the same problems with race as those before him.” Hannity later added: “It's only fair to ask: Do the Obamas have a race problem of their own?” [Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, 3/2/08]

Fox News guests and hosts compared Obama to Hitler

February 6: Beck on O'Reilly Factor: “We are really truly stepping beyond socialism and starting to look at fascism”; compares proposals to Nazi Germany

April 2: Teasing show, Beck airs photos of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, asks, “Is this where we're headed?”

May 15: On Hannity, Randall Terry revisits comparison between Obama and Nazi leaders

June 10: Beck says “the Germans” during Hitler's rise “were an awful lot like we are now”

June 19: Coulter discusses “problem with huge bureaucracies” like Nazis, U.S. gov't, adds “I'm not saying this is Nazi Germany”

August 12: Beck: “I'm not comparing” Obama to Hitler, but “please read Mein Kampf" and learn from Germany's mistakes

August 27: Beck claims Obama's “civilian national security force” is “what Hitler did with the SS,” “what Saddam Hussein” did