Shut Up, They Explained

The administration’s war against Fox News has reached something of a low point:

[White House Communications Director Anita] Dunn also criticized Fox’s Chris Wallace for referring to the administration as filled with “crybabies.” (“We kept ourselves from … responding, ‘I am rubber, you are glue,'” Dunn said).

Of course, if she had actually “kept herself from responding” with that elementary-school riposte, she wouldn’t have responded with it. Sort of like if I were to keep myself from pointing out that Dunn is an ignorant Communist sympathizer.
The assault continued on this morning’s news shows, with David Axelrod claiming that Fox is “not really a news station (sic).”
Actually, Fox is nowhere near as consistently pro-Republican as CNN is pro-Democratic, which is one reason it has a more bipartisan audience. As to MSNBC, of course, there is no comparison. And broadcast television is monolithically Democratic–NBC, CBS, ABC, the View, the Today show, Good Morning America, 60 Minutes–the list goes on and on.
One might wonder why the Obama administration is so outraged that a single network fails to toe its line. The administration acts as though it deserves a monopoly on the news. Isn’t that unreasonable?
Maybe, except the fact is that the Democrats do need a monopoly. Their problem is that controlling almost all news outlets isn’t quite enough, because without a complete monopoly, inconvenient news still gets out–ACORN, Van Jones, Anita Dunn, and so on. If it weren’t for Fox, criticism of the Democrats wouldn’t be illegal, it would just be nonexistent. Or invisible, anyway. Hence the administration’s frustration.
While that frustration is easy to understand, it is a little hard to see what Obama hopes to gain by constant railing against Fox News. Presumably the Democrats don’t seriously believe they can intimidate Sean Hannity et al. into shutting up. Maybe they think their attacks will damage Fox’s credibility with the public, but most independents are so skeptical of government that the attacks are likely to boost Fox in their eyes.
Free speech–it’s an inconvenience the Democrats haven’t yet figured out a way to deal with.

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