Fox News Host Greg Gutfeld Tells Pres. Obama Why He Needs Fox News

Pres. Barack Obama fired a shot at Fox News earlier this week when Rolling Stone published an interview with the President that included a less-than-flattering appraisal of the network (“It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world”). Now Fox News has begun to fire back.

First, Bill O’Reilly addressed Obama’s criticism on last night’s edition of The O’Reilly Factor. Now Greg Gutfeld, future gay bar proprietor and host of Red Eye, has also spoken up, writing this column, ““Why Obama Needs Fox News,” on FoxNews.com.

Gutfeld begins by making an easy dig at Rolling Stone itself, calling it a “thinning pamphlet aimed at our country’s dwindling supply of pony-tailed pensioners.” Then he gets down to brass tacks, accusing Obama of targeting Fox just because its personalities rarely agree with or support his policies:

OK, let me get this straight: You’re the President of the United States, with both Houses under your control. You also have the most fawning press of any president in the history of the universe. And yet you let FNC get under your skin, because it’s the only network that doesn’t have a thrill up its leg?

Obama is like a sports team who owns the ref, the fans and the field, but refuses to play until the kid in the tenth row stops chewing gum.

… In fact, I’d say it would be far worse for Obama if there was no Fox News, because then he’d only have the American people to get mad at. There is no Republican adversary right now, and without Fox News–who’s left? You.

And this is why the crybaby-in-chief needs us. It provides cover, so Obama can criticize Americans without ever saying “those Americans.” He can just say Fox News instead.

Gutfeld is being willfully obtuse by claiming that most members of the press are still “fawning” over Obama—mainstream outlets like the New York Times do not shy away from citing the President’s critics as well as his cheerleaders. It’s also absurd to say that Obama faces “no Republican adversary right now,” considering that most Republicans currently in Congress do their best to block Obama whenever they can—a phenomenon that Fox News itself has both observed and brought up while interviewing Congressmen in the GOP.

Still, there’s something valuable here. Freedom of the press exists for a reason, and Obama may have overstepped his bounds by citing Fox News as a news source he specifically disagrees with.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.