The recent war of words between the White House and FOX News is troubling and every American should be alarmed by it.  

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have branded FOX News as an illegitimate news source.  It seems that they do not think that the American people need a news network that takes a fair look at events, giving credit when it is due, but asking tough questions when they are needed.   Anyone who has watched cable news can attest that CNN, ABC and NBC have given much praise to the Obama administration, but have neglected to ask tough questions.  FOX News, however, has given praise, but also asked tough questions and doled out criticism.  The attack on FOX News is nothing more than the Obama administration’s intolerance (that’s right I said it) of differing points of view.  Their subsequent attempt to shut down FOX News goes against every liberal principle of free speech and acceptance.

The war between the White House and FOX News began after Anita Dunn told CNN that, “[FOX is] widely viewed as a part of the Republican Party: take their talking points and put them on the air, take their opposition research and put it on the air. And that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news organization like CNN is.”  A recent Pew Research Center survey, however, sheds a different light on Dunn’s opinion.  According to this survey, FOX News viewers are 39 percent Republican, 33 percent Democrat, and 22 percent independent.  CNN viewers are 18 percent Republican, 53 percent Democrat and 23 percent independent.  Republican and Democrat viewers are about equal for FOX News, but there are three times more Democrats watching CNN than Republicans.  If FOX News is just a wing of the Republican Party, why do an equal number of Democrats and Republicans watch the network?  CNN’s viewers are overwhelmingly Democrats.  Perhaps what Anita Dunn meant to say is, “FOX News is not liberal enough, not like CNN (sigh), so the Obama administration does not like them.”

If you asked Mr. Axelrod his opinion of FOX News, his argument would be fair if Glenn Beck was the only show FOX broadcasted.  In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Axelrod said, “It’s [FOX News is] really not news. It’s pushing a point of view. And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way.” No, sir, the bigger thing is that you refuse to acknowledge FOX because you do not agree with their commentators.  In addition to opinion characters like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, FOX has “real” news anchors Shepard Smith, Megyn Kelly and Brit Hume, just to name a few.  The follow-up to Mr. Axelrod’s opinion should have been, “Have you ever watched Countdown with Keith Olbermann?”  President Obama invited Keith Olbermann, one of MSNBC’s liberal commentators, to private briefings along with other liberal commentators.  This alone does not cause alarm, but the fact that FOX News correspondents were intentionally excluded does. The simple truth is that the White House agrees with liberal commentators and disagrees with conservative commentators.  Their recent war on FOX is an attempt to discredit those who disagree with them.

There are some news organizations that have recognized the unique nature of the White House’s recent attacks on FOX News.   Thomas DeFrank, who has covered every president since Nixon, said, “I can never remember a White House urging news organizations to boycott other news organizations. That strikes me as unprecedented.”  Besides Mr. DeFrank and a few others, no news organization has challenged the White House on their absurd accusation that FOX News is fake news.  

To have the leaders of our federal government quarrelling with a news organization is embarrassing.  President Obama is an articulate and brilliant man, but allowing his staff to begin a war with FOX News makes him seem like a dunce.  The White House must simply learn to live with criticism; no president before Obama has gone without it, and no president after him will go without it.  FOX News does have more conservative commentators than any other news network combined (more than 0).  This is something that President Obama must handle with the class he showed during his candidacy.  If President Obama and his staff would just stop whining, I think every American would be better for it.