DE-LEGITMIZE FOXNEWS TO SILENCE CRITICISM TO AVOID CLAIM OF BEING COUNTER FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN that President Obama does not want "the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox."
Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is "not a news organization."
"Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way," Axelrod counseled ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "We're not going to treat them that way."
As if no one ever saw Tim Russert pull out old quotes fact checked to hold ANYONE'S FEET TO THE FIRE?On Sunday, Fox's Chris Wallace retorted: "We wanted to ask Dunn about her criticism, but, as they've done every week since August, the White House refused to make any administration officials available to 'FOX News Sunday' to talk about this or anything else."
The White House stopped providing guests to 'Fox News Sunday' after Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, in August. Dunn said fact-checking an administration official was "something I've never seen a Sunday show do."
That these people cannot see what they are doing as anything but righteous is probably the most troubling item YET from this group."She criticized 'FOX News Sunday' last week for fact-checking -- fact-checking -- an administration official," Wallace said Sunday. "They didn't say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check."
"Let's fact-check Anita Dunn, because last Sunday she said that Fox ignores Republican scandals, and she specifically mentioned the scandal involving Nevada senator John Ensign," Wallace added. "A number of Fox News shows have run stories about Senator Ensign. Anita Dunn's facts were just plain wrong."
I appear to have greatly misjudged Mr Emanuel, and Mr. Axelrod. I appear to have misjudged the man responsible for the appointments of Sunnstein, Powers, Van Jones, Lloyd, Dunn and Holder. One is compelled to wonder, if they cannot see the chilling effect and danger of trying to de-legitimize criticism of any administration to the republic, WHAT IS IT THEY CAN SEE IN THEIR VISION?