Note: You might want to start at the Barack
Obama Index Page, especially
if you arrived here by using a search engine.
Examples of media bias in Obama's favor are almost too numerous to list — but I'll try.
On the previous page:
Media favoritism in the 2008 presidential campaign
Media favoritism between the November 2008 election and the January 2009 inauguration
Media favoritism in Obama's first term
The Unexpected
ABC is the most obvious about it
The Obama team manipulates the media
"Spontaneous" events and "randomly selected" people
Friday night document dumps
On this page:
The strange case of "Ellie Light"
Barack Obama vs Fox News Channel
And not only Fox News...
White House pressure is applied to all who disagree
Obama and the news media versus Toyota
Using doctors as props on the White House lawn
Using the National Endowment for the Arts as a propaganda tool
The strange case of "Ellie Light"
Is this person a White House employee or just an activist?
Obama
has suspicious number of letter-writing fans named 'Ellie Light'. Ellie Light sure gets
around. In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical "Letters to the Editor" in support
of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers. Every letter claimed a different residence
for Light that happened to be in the newspaper's circulation area.
Obama-Loving
Spammer 'Ellie Light' Dupes 42 Newspapers. In January, an anonymous person supposedly
named "Ellie Light" launched a massive PR campaign on behalf of President Barack Obama. The goal
appears to have been to infiltrate as many newspapers as possible to spread pro-Obama propaganda — as
if the press needed the help. ... It seems that lying about your identity is not a big deal if you write
gushing praise of Barack Obama — and even if you get caught, the mainstream media will actively
keep it covered up.
Is
This the President's Fake Letter to the Editor: The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper happened
upon a curious letter to the editor in support of President Obama that seems to have suddenly popped up in
nearly 40 newspapers across the country all at once. ... The whole thing stinks of an astroturf
effort — an effort to carpet the news with a fake grass-roots styled letter. Who
had the power to get this letter placed in so many papers all on the same day?
New Bogus Obama
Letter To Editor Writer Turns Up. The letters are nearly identical in grammar, tone, and gist.
The letters also contain the following closing statement: "...and a president can't just wave a magic
wand and fix everything." That may be true, but the President's political adviser David Axlerod can
wave a magic wand and send letters to a few dozen newspapers all under the same name, after all he is the
master of Astroturf.
Ellie
Light responds: Prolific pro-Obama letter writer talks about her online critics. Ellie
Light has responded to her critics, but has kept her location — and perhaps her true identity —
a secret. A well-traveled letter writer who has used dozens of different addresses to publish a pro-Obama
letter-to-the-editor in at least 40 newspapers around the country in recent weeks denies allegations that
she's secretly a White House official or is part of an organized propaganda campaign.
'I'm Ellie
Light,' California man says. Ellie Light, the ubiquitous letter writer whose name appeared in
newspapers nationwide praising President Barack Obama, appears to really be a male health care worker from
California. A man who identified himself as Winston Steward, 51, of Frazier Park, Calif., says he
made up the name "Ellie Light" to protect himself from criticism and possible physical attacks, and used
fake addresses across the country to get local newspapers to publish his letters.
The lesson of Ellie
Light: Obama's so hard up for advocates these days that this is the best he can do.
Barack Obama vs Fox News Channel
Obama's third war on Fox News.
President Obama is using the Department of Justice to attack the parent company of Fox News as he springs his
third War on Fox News. Barack Obama hates Fox News. I know not why. I do know that in
August 2007, as a rookie senator, Barack Obama forced cancellation of a Congressional Black Caucus-Fox News
presidential debate. Any reader's guess is as good as mine as to why he is at war with Fox News, but
that was his first War on Fox News.
Obama's Fox hunt.
President Obama is targeting critics in the media. As his poll numbers continue to decline and his
re-election chances grow dimmer by the day, he is increasingly resorting to authoritarian tactics.
His latest move: The Justice Department is preparing subpoenas as part of a preliminary investigation
into News Corp.
Obama
Press Aide E-Mails: Fox News Anchor Bret Baier 'Is a Lunatic'. No one expects the White House
to like the Fox News Channel — since they expect every media outlet to be obsequious, and so many oblige.
But White House e-mails acquired by the group Judicial Watch demonstrate that the animus gets a little heated
in private.
Emails
reveal White House calling Fox News host Baier 'a lunatic'. Back in 2009, the feud between the
Fox News Channel and President Barack Obama's administration reached its height. Then-White House
Communications Director Anita Dunn publicly attacked the network on CNN, and former Fox News host Glenn Beck
spearheaded an effort that resulted in the resignation of White House "green jobs czar" Van Jones.
E-mails
Show Obama Effort to Blackball Fox. It's not a secret that the Obama White House and media
outlets like Fox News have been at odds over the past two years, but new White House E-mails revealed today
show how the Fox-administration relationship foundered back in 2009. Released by watchdog Judicial Watch,
the E-mails suggest a bias against Fox News as a whole and one of its anchors, Bret Baier, specifically.
"He's a lunatic," says one of the White House E-mails.
The Left is Hunting Fox News.
With the Obama presidency teetering, the Left needs something on which to latch. So now that there's been
wrongdoing done by a Murdoch run newspaper, the Left smells blood in the water and now wants the Fox News Channel
to be investigated. The Left is hunting Fox News. As much as the Left loathes the likes of Rush
Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Dick Cheney, they probably despise Fox News even more.
White
House: Fox News 'a wing of the Republican Party'. The Obama administration declared Fox
News — and its owner, reporters and commentators — shills for the President's Republican
opponents Sunday [10/11/2009]. "Let's not pretend they're a news network," White House communications
director Anita Dunn said on CNN's "Reliable Sources," firing the latest salvo in the long-simmering feud.
Obama has found
his oppressor. Why would President Obama openly challenge the highest rated news channel in
existence? ... Many in the media are scratching their heads trying to figure out why a sitting President
would do something so foolish. The answer is simple. Obama's stock and trade when he was a
community organizer was peddling a victimization mentality that blames all manner of bogeymen but never
looks at the culture of failure that created the conditions he railed against. For a every victim
our community organizer needs an oppressor.
Why Declaring War on Fox
News Could Be a Mistake for Obama. Over the weekend, White House communications director Anita
Dunn announced the official beginning of the Obama administration's war with Fox News. Of course, the
battle has been openly brewing for months now. Even during the campaign, Obama's team gave up on sending
surrogates to the network. "It was beyond diminishing returns," Dunn told the New York Times. "It
was no returns." But now the war is out in the open.
How Dare They! The
White House is attacking Fox News again: it's insufficiently obsequious for the White House's taste. It's
a "research arm" of the Republican party, you see. And no, it's not just Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity whom
the Obama team is miffed at — it's the whole network.
The press should stick up for Fox News.
For the first time since Nixon, we have a president who is so vain and so thin of skin that he has an enemies
list. As the boycott led by the Jones group showed, this administration is not above acting against its
enemies, even pursuing economic sanctions. Obama's juvenile boycott of appearing on Fox News is
unpresidential.
Video
of Obama Communications Director Claiming Mao One of Her 'Favorite Political Philosophers'. The
feud between the White House and the Fox News Channel took another, thanks to one of Glenn Beck's viewers.
On Beck's Oct. 15 program, the Fox News host played video sent to him of White House Communications Director
Anita Dunn, who had previously slammed Fox News and called it an organ of the Republican Party.
Why the White House
Picked Anita Dunn to Wage War With Fox. This weekend, after White House communications director
Anita Dunn forthrightly declared war on Fox News, some people thought she might have gone a little too far in
explaining a tacit understanding in the Obama administration that they didn't deal directly with the right-leaning
network. ... But of course, Dunn's statements had been carefully scripted by the Obama team — as is
pretty much everything you hear from them, except things that are supposed to be off the record.
Fox News Locked Out. On September 20,
2009, Obama appeared on five Sunday morning news shows in one day — Fox News Sunday was not
included. Two weeks later, following what the New York Times referred to as a "Fox Summit" between
Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News, and David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama, Fox News was told
they wouldn't get to conduct any Obama interviews in the foreseeable future and all members of the
administration, from the top down, were ordered to stay off Fox News.
Unlike
Nixon, Obama's Media Attacks Generate Little Press Anger. Is Barack Obama turning into Spiro Agnew?
The White House's attacks on the Fox News smack of the distaste for media opposition espoused by Nixon's vice president
almost 40 years ago but are being met with a decidedly different reaction today by the elite media.
White
House Cites Opinion Shows as Basis for Fox News Complaints. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on
Tuesday [10/20/2009] pointed to two top-rated opinion shows on Fox News as the reason why the Obama administration has
castigated the network as an illegitimate news organization.
White House: Media shouldn't follow Fox.
A White House attempt to delegitimize Fox News — which in past times would have drawn howls of censorship from
the press corps — has instead been greeted by a collective shrug.
Media
Wars: White House Crosses the Line. Every White House complains about its press coverage. A
contentious relationship between the Executive Branch and a free and independent media is part of America's DNA.
Always has been. But this White House seems to feel they're different. ... Not since Nixon conjured up an "enemies
list" have we seen the full weight of the Office of the Presidency brought to bear in such a targeted and deliberate
effort to delegitimize a media organization critical of the President.
FCC-Church Conspiracy to Silence Talk
Radio and Fox? What we are documenting here is a full-fledged assault on conservative media. On talk
radio and on Fox News. An assault by name on some, on others with their names left out, but surely every bit the
target as the others. You can be assured that also in the bull's-eye here is Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and
others. Someone like Levin, who has both a popular talk radio show and a bestselling book, would be of particular
concern. So too those without their own shows but with successful books and websites — the
Michelle Malkins, Dick Morrises. Surely Andrew Breitbart, already in their sites for the ACORN
investigation, sits on this enemies list.
Obama Attempts to 'Wag the
Fox'. [Saul] Alinksy, a left-wing community organizer and author, advised his acolytes to "Pick
the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict tactics there are certain rules
that [should be regarded] as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the
target and 'frozen.'" Recent comments by White House Communications Director Anita Dunn have done
nothing to allay conservatives' suspicion.
Media Matters &
President Obama in Lockstep. Revival of right-wing conspiracy charges are all the rage
in the age of Obama, but liberals are just playing the same old shell game. The real action is
on the left, with lockstep collusion by the President with Soros-funded Media Matters. While the
President sends his surrogates onto national network programs to decry Fox News, Media Matters is behind
the scenes working its Fight Fox campaign.
Why
the White House attack on Fox is backfiring. A number of mainstream journalists are reacting
badly to the attempt to declare a journalistic organization off-limits. Why the negative reaction?
Is it because of solidarity among reporters? A reflexive defense of freedom of the press? Secret
sympathy for Fox? None of the above. The real reason the White House campaign is backfiring is
that it offends journalistic self-esteem. Most mainstream reporters are already ignoring stories
critical of the Obama administration that Fox plays up.
Obama's war on Fox &
half the country. On the one hand, we should celebrate the war between Fox News and the White
House. It is a good thing President Obama & Co. are angry with Fox. It means Fox is doing
its job, you know, holding the Executive Branch accountable, like a real news organization. This is good
news. Traditionally in America, the Fourth Estate's role has been to challenge those in power, challenge
the assumptions, examine the assertions, and check for accuracy, all the while carrying both sides of the story.
Mass media and private
liberty. The spectacle of a White House warring against the single television news network which
does not fawn over the president, and attacking his most prominent talk radio show critic, brings home just how
bureaucratized information, opinion, and thought have become in America. In television news a handful of
institutions determine what is newsworthy and what is not for those tens of millions who only get news from
the video screen. That decision — what is "news" — decides everything.
The
Real Flaw: Fox Is a No-Fawn Zone. [Scroll down] Now, I happen to agree with Obama
boosters who argue that the president has no obligation to appear on Fox News shows. If Obama and his
minions don't think they can hold their own with Chris Wallace, they are free to cower in their comfy offices.
'Radio Free America'.
[Scroll down slowly] It is no mystery why the White House has made Fox News a target. If its
reporting and commentating were not effective in exposing things the administration does not want the public
to know, Fox would be ignored. But it is increasingly effective because the public is sensing that the
administration has a lot to hide about its personnel, ideology and objectives.
The Grating
Communicator. I think the administration should have picked someone other than David Axelrod to
deliver the claim that Fox News is "not really news," inasmuch as Axelrod was behind the leak of scurrilous
allegations in Jack Ryan's sealed divorce papers when he was running for a Senate seat against Obama.
Talk about vicious personal gossip.
White House shows immaturity, thin
skin . By brazenly declaring war on a member of the Fourth Estate, the Obama administration is making a
first-rate error in judgment. Just because White House officials, and maybe even President Barack Obama himself,
don't like Fox News doesn't mean they have the right to decide that the network is — in the words of White
House Communications Director Anita Dunn — "opinion journalism masquerading as news."
The Editor says...
If the White House staff objects to "opinion journalism masquerading as news", they should boot Helen
Thomas out of the daily press briefings at the White House. She's an opinion writer, not a reporter.
Fox Wars: The
'post-partisan' president makes an enemies list. Rahm Emanuel once sent a dead fish to a live pollster.
Now he's put a horse's head in Roger Ailes's bed. Not very subtle. And not very smart. Ailes doesn't
scare easily.
Why the White House
Bullies Fox. The Obama team isn't at war with Fox because it's conservative. They're angry because
Fox has embarrassed them.
The
White House wages an unworthy media war. Politicians are sounding a little paranoid about the media these
days. The White House is trying to blockade the largest cable news network. A House candidate called the police
when a reporter asked her about abortion. Congressional leaders turn to angry media critics as they talk about why
support for health care legislation remains tepid. Lashing out at the press has always been a popular play for
politicians in distress, and it's often a precursor to eventual failure.
Obama Manipulates Media to Expel
Fox. Whether the White House's "war" against Fox News is a ruse to divert attention from President Barack
Obama's plummeting poll numbers and unfavorable policies, or an all-out attack to exclude Fox News from the White House
press pool, the self-proclaimed government "watch dogs" are virtually AWOL or turncoats.
An Open and
Transparent Presidency, Complete with an Enemies List. By October 22 the White House
had created a schedule for the White House Press Corps to interview Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg. However,
to the surprise of all (well maybe not a complete surprise) this interview schedule excluded Fox News.
Fortunately, ABC, NBC, CNN and CBS refused to interview Feinberg unless Fox was also permitted to do so.
Reinstated to the White House Press pool through the heroic efforts of their colleagues, Fox News White House
correspondent Major Garrett eventually succeeded in interviewing Mr. Feinberg.
Obama
Escalates Feud: Administration Attempts to Exclude Fox News from White House Pool. Just
when you thought the White House couldn't possibly do anything to make their bizarre feud with the Fox News
Channel an even larger spectacle — the administration manages to take it to another level.
Obama a tough guy, at
least with Fox News. The most recent whine — the anti-Fox campaign — is,
apart from anything else, unbecoming to the office. President Obama is the chief of state of one of
the oldest free societies in the world, but his official White House Web site runs teasers such as: "For
even more Fox lies, check out the latest 'Truth-O-Meter.'" It gives off the air of somebody only marginally
less paranoid than this week's president-for-life in some basket-case banana republic ranting on the palace
balcony because his interior security chief isn't doing a fast-enough job of disappearing his enemies.
Administration
Loses Bid to Exclude Fox News From Pay Czar Interview. The Obama administration on Thursday [10/22/2009]
tried to make "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg available for interviews to every member of the White House pool except
Fox News. But the Washington bureau chiefs of the five TV networks decided that none of their reporters
would interview Feinberg unless Fox News was included.
FOX and Foes.
President Obama has yet to decide on deploying more troops to fight the Taliban, but his administration is resolved
to defeat at least one pressing security threat: FOX News. For the past week, the administration has
been waging a full-bore political offensive against the cable news network.
Obama's
Third World get-the-press rant. Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge and Fox News are big enough to take
care of themselves, but the implications of what the Obamanauts are trying to do are scary, indeed. Brisk
and even brutal opposition is something every president must endure; it's a pity that Mr. Obama skipped
school the day the class studied American history.
Obama's
War on Fox Is Liberalism's War on Dissent. A handful of liberals, to be fair, have criticized Obama for his
war on Fox News and conservative talkers. But most aren't the least bit troubled by it and are probably secretly
relishing it. Have you ever heard prominent liberal voices go after Keith Olbermann or other extremely liberal and
biased MSNBC or CNN hosts as they have Fox and Sean Hannity?
Obama's
War on FOX. [Scroll down] The assaults sunk to new lows this week when President Obama personally
entered the scene. Illustrating just how thin-skinned our commander-in-chief is, he pronounced that Fox News is
"operating basically as talk radio," meaning, talk radio allows people to criticize Obama. It is particularly
telling when a president stoops to the level of criticizing a news organization, because it reveals how desperate,
frightened and threatened he truly feels.
Light 'em Up, Fox News. Obama loves the
media as long as it loves him, and not a New York minute longer. ... The first target of Barry O's administration
was radio juggernaut Rush Limbaugh. ... Their second target is now Fox News, which Barry O's administration
claims is a mouthpiece for the Republican Party and, as such, has imposed a White House blockade against Fox News
in hopes of damaging the fair and balanced network. Bad move.
Maybe Obama will publicly attack akdart.com ...
Ratings for Fox News
up 10% since attacks by Obama. The last couple of days have seen the White House back off a
bit — no doubt they realize the mistake they've made. But the perception is out there that this is
a very thin skinned president who will attack those who don't worship at his feet.
Whose Idea Was It To
Go After Fox News? If Fox hadn't covered the specifics about what Obamacare will really cost taxpayers,
and covered the growing anti-government tea parties, and the September 12th march on Washington, would the health
care reform bill have already passed both houses of Congress without anybody actually reading it? Isn't that
why Democrat-controlled committees in Congress are now hiding behind closed doors and not letting in Republicans
or the press?
'Non-news
channel' tops in Fort Hood coverage. Fox News Channel was the cable channel of choice for
Americans eager for news about the Fort Hood massacre Thursday night [11/5/2009] according to Bill Gorman of
TV by the Numbers. Similar to election night coverage two days earlier, in overwhelming numbers viewers
turned to "the non news network," as President Barack Obama's strategists Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod
derisively labeled it, for information and updates on the unfolding tragedy.
The Mao The Merrier.
Anita Dunn may be leaving with her little red book, but her husband enters as the next White House counsel, bringing
experience in suppressing dissent, assaulting the First Amendment and limiting speech. Dunn, whose favorite
philosophers include mass murderer Mao Zedong, was expected to leave after a short stint. She rose to
fame as chief strategist for former Senate majority leader, now national health care guru, Tom Daschle.
While serving as White House communications director, she was the commanding general of the administration
"war" on Fox News.
Fox and Foes.
Whenever I hear people outside the administration prattle on about how evil and biased Fox News is, I know
I am listening to a flock of parrots who have never even tuned in. As a conservative myself, I have a number
of problems with the network. For one thing, I resent Bill O'Reilly's ridiculing those who merely ask for
documentation that their president was born in the United States, and I also wish he'd stop defending Obama
against charges that he's a Socialist or worse.
Fox News Making More Money Than All Its Rivals, Combined.
When it comes to Fox News, otherwise rational people — and even some who were irrational to begin
with, such as your average progressive — suddenly become deranged and start foaming at the mouth.
Six for Six. What was the
White House thinking when it decided to single out the Fox News Channel for derision? Sure it might
have impressed some of Obama's most ardent followers, but as a general rule it's not a good idea to insult
the viewing public.
The dividends keep coming in...
The First Amendment.
Real Clear Politics reports that Fox News audience numbers continue to climb while Air America has declared
bankruptcy. "According to Neilsen, Fox News drew an astonishing 6.2 million total viewers during
primetime Tuesday night [1/19/2010], compared to only 1.5 million for CNN and 1.1 million for MSNBC."
But it is not just the shifts within the industry that are tectonic. The whole scene has been disturbed
by a Supreme Court decision.
FOX
News' Bret Baier Shows Why Obama Has Been Dodging FOX News. [Scroll down] In response,
Baier was respectful, but not intimidated. Unlike most of the legacy media interviewers, Baier
understands that he represents more than himself and his network. He represents the viewing public.
Why
the White House Bullies Fox: The Obama team isn't at war with Fox because it's conservative.
They're angry because Fox has embarrassed them.
Irony:
Look
what cable news channel Obama's own Justice Dept. chooses to watch. The briefing room's main
TV's are tuned to the top-rated cable news channel. Trouble is, that's the dreaded Fox News Channel that
Obama aides including David Axelrod so weirdly picked a fight with last fall...
Cavuto
Strikes Back At Gibbs For His 'Botched White House Presser'. Fox News's Neil Cavuto on Wednesday [5/5/2010]
struck back at Robert Gibbs for his "botched White House presser." On Tuesday, the White House press
secretary took exception with Cavuto inviting former FEMA director Michael Brown on the previous day's "Your
World" to offer a conspiracy theory about the Obama administration's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico. As NewsBusters reported, Gibbs badly misstated what Brown said during the interview as he
chastised Fox's Wendell Goler who had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Are
conservatives suspicions regarding the media justified? Yes. Howard Kurtz whines that
"[Conservative] candidates seem to regard it as an affront when reporters challenge them on their past
statements and inconsistencies, which is a basic function of journalism. They are avoiding or
limiting interviews with all but the friendliest faces as a way of circumventing the press. And some
of them delight in skewering the mainstream media, a tactic that plays well with their base." It's
interesting that Kurtz doesn't mention the Obama administration's attempt to boycott Fox News, and its
ongoing complaints about that network.
Somewhat related:
Group
Claims FNC Lies, Proceeds to Lie About Fox, Tea Party. Reading through material from the "Turn
Off Fox" campaign, one gets the very clear impression that the folks at the Fox News Channel are bold-faced
liars. They have "no regard for the truth," and uses "half-truths" to push a "stream of misinformation"
and "distortions of the truth." Turn Off Fox is a project started by Color of Change, the far-left
political organization founded by neo-Marxist and black liberation theologist Van Jones.
Obama:
Fox News is 'destructive' to America. President Obama is pulling no punches when it comes to Fox News,
declaring the cable news outlet to be "destructive to [America's] long-term growth." In a more than 8,000-word
interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Obama compared the cable news channel to papers owned by William Randolph
Hearst at the turn of the 20th century that unabashedly pushed the media titan's own political views.
Obama
Says Fox News 'Destructive' for U.S. Growth. President Barack Obama on Tuesday [9/28/2010] called Fox News Channel
"ultimately destructive for the long-term growth" of the United States, reopening a long-running feud with the
conservative cable network that has led the U.S. conservative media's opposition to his administration.
The Editor says...
After everything Mr. Obama has done to this country,
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
he certainly has a lot of nerve to criticize Fox News.
Fox News' Viewpoint "Destructive" for
U.S. Growth, Obama Says. In this month's cover story for Rolling Stone magazine, President Obama
weighs in on the cable network Fox News, saying that while he can't object to the network carrying out its
constitutional right to freedom of the press, he thinks it promotes a perspective that is "ultimately
destructive for the long-term growth" of America.
Is Obama launching a new
fall attack on Fox News? Last year at this time, President Obama and his top White House advisers
were about to launch a disastrous campaign against Fox News. I say disastrous because the acting communications
director, Anita Dunn, who sounded the call to arms on Howard Kurtz's "Reliable Sources" show, would resign within
weeks. By then, the president and his innermost circle — after going on every major non-Fox news
show to attack TV's highest-rated cable news channel as "not really being a news channel" — were in
full retreat.
Obama's War Against Fox News. If
President Barack Obama's television has a V-Chip it's likely set to block Fox News rather than content
unsuitable for family viewing. Obama's latest salvo against the "fair and balanced" network came
courtesy of an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, a publication which afflicts the comfortable only when a
Republican is lounging in the White House La-Z-Boy recliner.
Obama: Embattled, Embittered,
and Lashing Out. Barack Obama's recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine paints a portrait of
a president under siege and lashing out. For example, the Tea Party is, according to Obama, the tool of
"very powerful, special-interest lobbies" — except for those in the Tea Party whose motivations are
"a little darker, that have to do with anti-immigrant sentiment or are troubled by what I represent as the
president." Fox News, the president informs us, "is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a
country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world."
Obama and His Enemies. It's not
at all unusual for presidents to have difficulties with the press. What is unusual is for a president to
take on a single news outlet, accuse it of bias, and ignore the opposite bias in most of the other outlets,
pretending that the news business itself has no generally capitalist aspect, and that the station that cares
about its success is the mercenary exception rather than the rule.
FOX Rocks, CNN Dumps as the Internet Pumps.
While President Obama claims he doesn't pay attention for FOX or talk radio (yet finds time to condemn both) the fact is
his advisers are keyed in to every broadcast to take the temperature of the opposition.
Panic sets in on the
left. Two recent headline stories: 1) Chinese police have arrested prominent writer
Ran Yunfei for challenging the ruling Communist Party; the latest in a string of arrests in a deepening
crackdown on dissent. 2) The George Soros-funded Media Matters has announced open guerilla
warfare and sabotage of Fox News and various conservative blog sites. They plan to intimidate,
through character assassination and opposition research, the executives and personalities at all levels of
these organizations.
It's not just Fox News.
White House pressure is applied to all who disagree
Crushing
the media. The American media elected Obama. No presidential candidate's past ever
went so deliberately underexposed. So the attack on Fox may simply have been payback to the networks
that are hemorrhaging viewers, the equivalent for the media of a night in the Lincoln bedroom. Whatever
the rationale, Team Obama's apparatchiks were fully in step with the global left's war on freedom of speech.
The
White House Stupidly Goes To War With Car Website Edmunds.com. It is an odd, and we'd say
regrettable, pattern of this White House that it lets itself get dragged down into fights with specific media
outlets. ... But in addition to Fox News, now The White House is going after highly-respected and influential
car site Edmunds.com.
'Clunkers' critique draws fire
from White House. The White House lashed out again Thursday [10/29/2009] at a media outlet,
calling the automotive site Edmunds.com "wrong (again)" for saying that the "cash for clunkers" program cost
too much money and had little lasting impact on car sales or the economy.
Why
Liberal Journalists are Joining the Obama Administration's Attack on Fox News. While the Obama
Administration continues its war against its media critics, well known liberal journalists —
instead of defending freedom of the press — are joining the attack on a news network they despise
as much as does the Administration. Gone is any seeming concern for the right of commentators to voice
their own opinion, because mainstream liberal editorial writers are sure their opponents are both extremists
and wrong.
The Vilification of
Rush. Liberals would prefer no opposition. Behind the force field of political
correctness, there should never be any disagreement once the liberal mind has decided that something is
good for society. There can be no opposition to the "correct" way of thinking, and if you don't
think "correctly," you are attacked. Those who dare to disagree with liberal orthodoxy are
punished sooner or later.
New
Anti-Limbaugh-Beck Group Tied To Ex-Obama Czar Van Jones. A new left-wing organization created
specifically to attack Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, and Paul Brown has ties to
ex-Obama green jobs czar Van Jones.
White
House's Media Attacks Part of a Troubling Trend. The White House is taking it upon itself to
police the news media. The trend started of course with the Fox News Channel, but the administration
has moved on to bash other organizations, most recently the Associated Press and car site Edmunds.com.
It seems to believe that any criticism of its policies is worth attacking.
This isn't White House pressure, but the effect is the same:
High School
student in danger for disagreeing with Obama. A high percentage of Americans believed race
relations would improve with the election of America's first black president. Today, that percentage
has dropped dramatically. Could it be because the Obama administration, at every turn, has shamelessly
exploited race to further its agenda? The message of the liberal media/Obama administration tag team
comes across loud and clear. If you disagree with Obama, we will brand you a racist and we will hurt you.
Obama will attack anyone who makes him look bad.
White
House Attacks Gallup Now. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs lashed out at Gallup polling
today for releasing poll data that the administration does not like. The most recent Gallup poll shows
President Obama's approval ratings at 47 percent, the lowest rating on record at this point in any presidency.
The Obama 4 year
plan to re-make America. [Scroll down] President Obama wants more than to just simply
remain a favorite of the Media. He intends to silence the few remaining bastions of free information
that countenance any significant opposition to his ideology, if not by excluding them from key press
conferences, then by effectively sending his minions to publicly demonize them.
Dems rip Rasmussen. The
pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats
that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to
undermine Democratic politicians and the party's national agenda.
The White House resorts to mocking derision:
Talk to
the hand. Say one thing for White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: The hypocrite's got
chutzpah. Too bad he's so dumb. Gibbs took a moment from his Tuesday [2/9/2010] press briefing to
mock Sarah Palin for delivering a speech at last weekend's Tea Party convention in Nashville — with
notes ("Energy," "Tax cuts," etc.) scribbled on her hand. Gibbs stood at the podium and showed his press
audience that he had jotted down "Eggs," "Milk," "Hope" and "Change" on his hand.
Mr. President, I demand that you attack me.
President Obama attacked Rush Limbaugh — and his ratings went up. President Obama attacked Fox
News — and its ratings went up. President Obama called for a boycott of Glenn Beck —
and his ratings went up. Now he has attacked Karl Rove.
The Editor says...
I've heard that President Obama secretly harbors a grudge
against akdart.com.
Obama and the news media versus Toyota
One way to pay back
the unions for their support
in the 2008 presidential campaign -- while propping up the
recently nationalized GM and
Chrysler -- is to amplify the troubles of the most popular foreign auto makers. Personally,
I don't buy "the floormats make the accelerator stick" when the gas pedal is connected to a computer,
and the computer decides whether the gas pedal is up or down. Nonetheless, it is beginning to
appear that the Obama administration is drumming up unnecessary panic.
Gangster
government targets Toyota. What is it about the automotive industry that inspires such thuggish
attitudes in the Obama administration? ... Given the Obama administration's catering to one of its favorite
special interest groups, the United Auto Workers union, during the government's bailouts of General Motors
and Chrysler last year, it is difficult to avoid wondering whether Toyota has become a victim of the Chicago
Way of dealing with competitors.
Local Toyota dealer calls LaHood's comments
'ridiculous' and 'irresponsible'. Kent Newbold could not believe what he was hearing Wednesday [2/3/2010]
when the nation's leading transportation official initially warned Toyota drivers to stop driving their cars. "It was ridiculous," said
Newbold, owner of a Toyota dealership in O'Fallon [Illinois]. "It's irresponsible, and it's not necessary."
The
war on Toyota: There can be little doubt that Toyota, the world's greatest automaker in recent
years, has become the victim of much more than another typical out-of-control All-American media frenzy. ... The
attack on Toyota, at this time of U.S. economic weakness and populist excess, is fast turning into a great
American nationalist assault on a foreign corporation, an economic war. The White House has denied any
such motivation on the part of the United States. But that denial lacks credibility.
Does
the Government Pose a Bigger Threat to Toyota Than its Sticky Pedals? Toyota's bad press has
been for its sticky pedal incident certainly isn't surprising, but is all the negative attention warranted?
When asked about the Toyota recalls, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood responded by saying, "My advice to
anyone who owns one of these vehicles is stop driving it, and take it to the Toyota dealership because they
believe they have the fix for it" and that "we're not finished with Toyota." Hood later toned down his
remarks but immediately after his "stop driving" comment, Toyota's stocks plummeted.
After Toyota's Hit, Why Invest
Here? Now that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has served notice he's "not finished" with
Toyota, how keen will other foreigners be to invest and create jobs here? This political show could cost us.
The grandstanding against Toyota over a safety issue hasn't been limited to LaHood. House Energy and Commerce
Committee Chairman Henry Waxman also got out front the cameras to announce congressional hearings.
AFP
Asks: 'Is US Bullying Toyota on Recall?' [Scroll down] If the government hadn't decided to
become the controlling owner of two auto companies, the worst suspicion would be that it's picking on a foreign-based
competitor of a large U.S. industry. Now the suspicion is that it's trying to hurt the strongest foreign-based
competitor of two companies it controls and from which it hopes (someday) to recover tens of billions of dollars it
has thrown at them. No amount of outwardly professional behavior will negate the existence of that inherent
multibillion-dollar conflict.
Toyota
and the Union-Backed, Government-Led Witch Hunt. Toyota, which employs over 35,000 workers in
the United States with factories in eight states, is the target of a government-led and union-supported
attack due to recent recalls.
DOT
Spokesperson's ACORN-y Background 'Very Telling'. So in Barack Obama's America, what happens to
a person who ... In October 2008, registered to vote in the Buckeye State, even though she was not a resident,
and apparently obtained an early-voting ballot? [And] Along with a dozen others, avoided a threatened felony
prosecution that month by signing "a form letter asking the Franklin County elections board to pull their
names from the rolls." Why, you get hired by Uncle Sam at what is probably a six-figure salary to be a
Transportation Department spokesperson. Isn't that obvious?
The taint
in the Toyota probe: Regardless whether one loves or hates Toyota, a herd of huge elephants in
the living room of this controversy have thus far been completely ignored in news reports and analysis.
These include, first, a pair of related conflicts of interest underlying the government's role, and, second,
the disreputable records of several key "expert" witnesses in the mounting crusade against the besieged
automaker. ... The other conflict of interest is with the government's major partner in GM ownership, the
United Auto Workers union.
Toyota tangled in Washington
show trial. Congress dragged Toyota to Washington to testify in one of the indignant show trials they
so love. I wish they would subpoena themselves and bring Congress before a Senate hearing, under oath and
under the hot lights of TV cameras. Then we might get to the roots of most problems in America: too
much government intervention, confusing rules, and second-guessing politicians.
Sudden
Acceleration of Washington Falsehoods. Overwrought, tort-fed accusations of automakers designing
"killing machines" have historically been based on half-baked, even fraudulent, manipulations of data.
When Audi was accused of making runaway cars in the 1980s, 60 Minutes doctored accelerator pedals. In
1993 NBC used hidden rockets strapped to the bottom of GM trucks to make them explode to "prove" GM's side-saddle
gas tank design was unsafe. Now the other shoe is dropping in the Toyota "sudden acceleration" case.
What are the odds your Prius will kill you? Prof. Paul
Fishbeck of Carnegie-Mellon University, did the calculation on that choice between walking a mile or driving
it in a recalled Prius. Here's his conclusion: ... "Walking a mile is 19 times or
1,900 percent more dangerous than driving a mile in a recalled Toyota."
Is the White House sitting on a report that exonerates Toyota?
With the Obama eager to justify the GM bailout by pushing Chevy's new "electric lemon," Walter Olson at the
indispensable Overlawyered blog discusses whether that the White House is sitting on a report that clears
Toyota in the sudden acceleration fracas.
Using doctors as props on the White House lawn
3
of 4 doctors flanking Obama at event donated to his campaign. Not only did the four doctors who flanked
President Obama at his White House press event on Monday [10/5/2009] recommend his plan; three out of four of them
donated to his presidential campaign. It could be an ad slogan to put the toothpaste marketers who like to brag
that nine out of ten doctors recommend their brand to shame.
White House's botched
'op'. A sea of 150 white-coated doctors, all enthusiastically supportive of the president and representing
all 50 states, looked as if they were at a costume party as they posed in the Rose Garden before hearing
Obama's pitch for the Democratic overhaul bills moving through Congress. The physicians, all invited guests, were
told to bring their white lab coats to make sure that TV cameras captured the image.
White
Coats at the White House. With each new day, President Obama seems more and more all show and no substance.
The latest: a glitzy photo-op to push his health-care plans. Monday [10/5/2009], the White House assembled
150 hand-picked doctors to tout the "wonders" of ObamaCare. Alas, not everyone followed the careful instructions
to bring their white lab coats. No problem: As The Post's Charles Hurt reported, presidential staffers rustled
up a whole bunch of them (left over from the set of "ER," no doubt) and gave them out to anyone needing one.
Spin Doctors
for Obamacare. Lights, camera, agitprop! The curtains opened on yet another artfully
staged performance of Obamacare Theater this week. One hundred and fifty doctors took their places on
the plush lawn outside the West Wing — many acting like "Twilight" groupies with cameras instead
of credible medical professionals. The president approved the scenery: "I am thrilled to have
all of you here today, and you look very spiffy in your coats." White House wardrobe assistants
guaranteed the "spiffy."
Those White Coats In The Rose
Garden. Rather than a grass-roots uprising of physicians, this was a classic case of
AstroTurfing. Attendance was by invitation only, and 40 of the 150 were said to be members of
Doctors for America, a reincarnation of the Doctors for Obama arm of the Obama campaign that boasts
of having more than 15,000 members. The physicians were told to bring their white lab coats
with them to make sure the TV cameras to capture the proper image. Those who just showed up
wearing suits or dresses were provided with lab coats hastily rustled up.
Lipstick On A Pig.
[Scroll down] It didn't work the first time, when the White House last year assembled enough sympathetic
medical professionals to stage a photo-op in the Rose Garden trying to persuade us that, as the commercial goes,
three of four doctors really, really support the administration's attempt to nationalize health care. Rather
than a grass-roots uprising of physicians, last year's event was a classic case of astroturfing. Attendance
was by invitation only, and 40 of the 150 physicians were said to be members of Doctors for America, a reincarnation
of Doctors for Obama, an arm of the Obama campaign that boasts of having more than 15,000 members.
More
about "Spontaneous" events and "randomly selected" people.
I can show you another example of Obama's
propaganda team using doctors as props.
Using the National Endowment for the Arts as a propaganda tool
The
National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion? A machine that the NEA helped to create could
potentially be wielded by the state to push policy. Through providing guidelines to the art community
on what topics to discuss and providing them a step-by-step instruction to apply their art form to these
issues, the "nation's largest annual funder of the arts" is attempting to direct imagery, songs, films, and
literature that could create the illusion of a national consensus. This is what Noam Chomsky
calls "manufacturing consent."
Film
Producer Accuses NEA of Enlisting Artists to Push Obama's Domestic Agenda. The National
Endowment for the Arts initiated a "call to action" earlier this month for members of the art community to
push President Obama's recovery agency through works that focus on health care, energy and the
environment — a troubling sign, one artist said.
Politicizing
the Arts. The NEA, along with the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve (the
administration's volunteerism initiative), had invited 75 members of the arts community to listen to a
discussion supposedly about national service. ... [But apparently] the nation's top funder of the arts was abusing
its position as custodian of taxpayer dollars to promote the Obama agenda. This is unprecedented.
The NEA's partisan work for
Obama. When the Obama administration launched its United We Serve volunteerism program earlier this summer,
it was all about building playgrounds, caring for wounded veterans and reading to homeless children. Weeks later,
the Obama White House, the National Endowment for the Arts and United We Serve have revealed the actual agenda —
backing the administration's political priorities with coordinated propaganda, perhaps boosted by millions in stimulus cash.
Who
Set Up Government 'Propaganda' Conference Call? Another conference call has materialized,
revealing a concerted effort by government to use the arts to address political issues. ... The meeting
invitation went out to all "member local, state, and regional arts agencies, community-based arts
organizations, and national partners of Americans for Arts." Americans for Arts is a non-profit arts
organization that has received substantial grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The NEA's new mission:
Obama's sermon to the children followed on the Obama administration's epistle to the arts community.
Yossi Sergant is the communications director of the National Endowment for the Arts. On August 10
Sergant held a conference call with 75 members of the community funded by the NEA. As Abby Wisse
Schacter reported, Sergant's sounded "a lot like an effort to get recipients of government grants to lobby
for the Obama agenda."
NEA in politics flap.
The communications director for the National Endowment for the Arts is no longer in his job amid a flap over suggestions
he suggested artists work to further President Obama's legislative agenda. A conservative artist writing on the
site Big Hollywood first complained that the official, later identified as Yosi Sargent, had been on a conference call
with artists aimed at furthering President Obama's legislative agenda — a bit of a no-no for the agency, which
does its best to stay apolitical.
High Noon for politicized
arts funding. The National Endowment for the Arts and White House official Buffy Wicks are bracing for
the new bombshell coming from Andrew Breitbart and BigGovernment.com. The website offers a preview this morning
on BigGovernment.com, citing the notorious and likely illegal politicization of the NEA, bullying artists receiving
grants into works supporting the administration's legislative priorities.
Explosive
New Audio Reveals White House Using NEA to Push Partisan Agenda. Should the National Endowment for the Arts
encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally? That is the question that I set out to
discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art
of Persuasion?" The question still requires debate but the facts do not.
After
'Inappropriate' NEA Conference Call, White House Pushes New Guidelines. An August 10, 2009 National
Endowment for the Arts conference call in which artists were asked to help support President Obama's agenda — a
call that at least one good government group called "inappropriate" — has prompted the White House to issue
new guidelines to prevent such a call from ever happening again.
At
Least 6 Federal Laws and Regulations Violated By the NEA Conference Call. Yesterday, I posted about
the NEA conference call's clear and obvious violations of the Anti-Lobbying Act (19 U.S. Code §1913) ... But
that's not all. The conference call also violates the Hatch Act — in particular, 5 U.S. Code
§7323(a)(4)...
The Art of Corruption. Through the work of
artist and blogger Patrick Courrielche, Andrew Breitbart's new website Big Government — reporting the news
so the mainstream media won't have to — has just released a sickening transcript of an August 10 conference
call jointly hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House's Office of Public Engagement, and
United We Serve, an initiative overseen by the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency.
What Is
Yosi Sergant? Here's how Obama-era "transparency" works in practice: A government agency
is caught in a scandal. The chairman of the agency issues a statement blaming the scandal on an unnamed
"employee," who, the chairman asserts, "has been relieved of his duties." The statement omits the fact
that the offending employee still works for the same agency, in the same office, as he did before. When
a journalist inquires about this, he is told by a colleague in that very same office — the
communications office! — that she knows nothing about his new assignment. It's hard to
imagine government being more evasive and opaque.
NEA communications director
resigns. The National Endowment for the Arts said Thursday [9/27/2009] that its communications director,
Yosi Sergant, has resigned. "This afternoon Yosi Sergant submitted his resignation from the National Endowment
for the Arts. His resignation has been accepted and is effective immediately," said a spokeswoman, Sally Gifford,
in a statement.
Unanswered questions
from the NEA. National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman and the White House finally
responded to a controversial effort by political appointees of both the White House and the NEA to "leverage"
government funding of the arts into cultural support for the administration's legislative agenda. This is
the short version of the Obama administration's position: Nothing bad happened.
Why Didn't The
White House Call Me? It's not every day that artists are contacted by the White House to do its
bidding, so I was somewhat miffed to be left out of its telephone conference hosted by the National Endowment
for the Arts (NEA)? After all, I'm an award-winning artist who designed a domestic violence poster for
New York State. I've also created an anti-smoking poster (seen here) that would have warmed the cockles
of our nanny mayor, Michael Bloomberg. In all seriousness, I hardly expected inclusion because I don't
get government funding. Hmm, but isn't that illegal?
Is Obama Breaking
the Law? The meeting was dedicated to putting community organizers and artists in the same room,
with the tacit promise of funding from the NEA ever present. According to the report, that promise was
actually more than tacit: Garcia Durham allegedly told the assembled crowd that "government and its
policies should be shaped by participants' voices in connection with the NEA." There's only one problem
with this: it's illegal.
Selling
White House Policy Through Art. Were Sergant and Abernathy really working alone on this effort? Did
Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, actually have no idea that the goal of
the conference call was to encourage artists to create art on politically controversial issues? Through Wicks'
own words during the conference call, she acknowledges the group was a pro-Obama collective and thanks them for their
efforts.
Newly
disclosed emails link White House directly to NEA politicalization scandal. Former actor and
present White House associate director of public engagement Kalpen Modi was directly involved in planning the
controversial conference call hosted by a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) flack to encourage tax-supported
artists to create propaganda for President Obama, according to emails obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Federal Volunteer Agency Misrepresented Involvement in White House,
NEA Conference Call. Recently revealed documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) show a few interesting facts and supports the claims made in my earlier
articles — namely, Yosi Sergant, the former NEA Communications Director, did not work alone in
organizing the controversial August 10th conference call; that the White House Office of Public Engagement
was fully aware of his efforts; and most importantly, that The Corporation for National and Community Service
misrepresented who actually initiated the meeting.
More about
the National Endowment for the Arts.
More examples of media bias can be found on a whole series of pages,
starting here.
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