What’s Right With The White House’s Posture on Fox News (And What’s Wrong)

The Wall Between Opinion and News

A linchpin of Fox News’ defense has been the notion that there’s a separation between their news and opinion programming.  This is true, to some degree, but it’s not the same as the separation between, say, ABC News and Dancing with the Stars.  Fox News anchors and reporters routinely appear on these opinion programs, sometimes even offering dissent. Viewers may be able to distinguish between the formats on these shows, but opinion shows like Hannity make offers of fact. Does Fox News Channel feel that opinion programs are devoid of responsibility to present facts fairly and accurately?

For example, host Sean Hannity did several segments in which he presented, as fact, that White House appointee Kevin Jennings “supports” NAMBLA. He deliberately omitted a portion of a Jennings quote that clearly would have shown that this was not true.

If Mediaite ran a headline that said “Sean Hannity Praises Former Member of NAMBLA,” I’m sure Fox News would rightly object, even though that’s exactly what he did. His guest joined NAMBLA to “infiltrate” them. See how that works?

Furthermore, is it fair for Fox News to disavow what its opinion hosts say, after they tried to pin Bill Ayers on Obama? These are two groups of people who work closely together, not long-ago acquaintances.

Media Matters has posted extensive examples of Fox News programming that is untrue or unfair, but the genesis of this fight is clearly driven by Fox News personalities like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Letting them off the hook is a mistake.  They’re entitled to their own opinions, not their own facts.

The White House’s “War on Fox News”

The media seems to be going along with the characterization that this is a White House “War on Fox News,” the implication being that the White House is simply picking on Fox News because they don’t like the coverage. In reality, they are responding to a series of campaigns against the President’s appointees, and a demonstrable slant in their news coverage. Does the fact that the other guy swung first mean that all bets are off? Certainly not, but it’s an important part of the overall picture.

What started out as Fox News whining about being bullied by the White House has morphed into the White House actually bullying Fox News.Bewteen equals, such a scrum might be appropriate, but when you’re the Executive Branch of the United States, you can’t go around telling the other kids to ignore the one you don’t like.

They need to regain the high ground that served them so well during the campaign, and make their case more narrowly. Pushing back against specific stories and identifying patterns of behavior will serve them much better than simply trying to wish Fox out of existence.

The White House hasn’t returned a request for comment on this article.

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