White House Attack on FoxNews Really About Keeping Leftwing Media from Covering Any of Their Scoops

A commenter at Instapundit made this point the other day.

The criticism of Fox is not aimed at Fox. It is aimed at liberal editors, and is intended to quarantine the dramatic news being uncovered by right-of-center media. If the liberal editors accept the criticism, they’ll feel good about hiding right-of-center news stories from busy, non-political, swing-voting Americans.

A Politico story confirms this:

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.

That’s true even though the motivations of the White House are clear: Fire up a liberal base disillusioned with Obama by attacking the hated Fox. Try to keep a critical news outlet off-balance. Raise doubts about future Fox stories.

But most of all, get other journalists to think twice before following the network’s stories in their own coverage.

...

To some media observers, it’s almost the definition of a “chilling effect” – a governmental attempt to steer reporters away from negative coverage – but the White House press corps has barely uttered a word of complaint.

That could be because of the perception among some journalists that Fox blurs the line between reporting and commentary - making it seem like not the most sympathetic victim.

Um, that could be because 99% of the White House press corps voted enthusiastically for Obama, too, and have staked their journalistic futures on his success.

But of course that doesn't occur to Politico. Too fantastical to be considered.

Still, the comments set off alarm bells with some journalists and media analysts.

“I can never remember a White House urging news organizations to boycott other news organizations. That strikes me as unprecedented,” said Thomas DeFrank, a Washington journalist who has covered eight presidents and now serves as the bureau chief of the New York Daily News.

“I see it as bullying a news organization, by the time you get to telling ABC or some other news organization how they should behave to another news organization,” said David Zurawik, media critic for the Baltimore Sun. “Someone should tell them: you’re one branch of government. We’re something else over here. Don’t lecture us about how we should behave towards one another.”

Politico notes that mixing news with "criticisms of the president" is working for FoxNews.

Um, didn't that used to work for the media generally?

posted by Ace at 12:31 PM

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