In my opinion, the so called "war on Fox News" that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh accuse Obama of doing barely qualifies as touch football. Beck has free speech, but so does Obama: he is not required to approve of being called Hitler/Mao/Stalin/Capone/Voldemort/Darth Vadar by a professional news network, nor is he required to give Fox interviews. And contrary to Beck's claims of persecution, if he were being persecuted, why is he making millions of dollars a year (an example of a non elitist)?

But am I wrong? Is Obama in some way persecuting Fox News? Has he gone beyond his rights? Can he be impeached, as a blogger over at USAToday suggested for this?

Is Obama restricting Fox News in any illicit way?

If no, I don't see what on Earth he could be impeached for. Whereas Fox News obviously has the right (and, some may say, the duty) to present its point of view, Fox News has no right to require anyone's presence on its shows at all.

Martyrdom sells.

I'm pretty sure Fox News' ratings will take a big hit if Obama starts criticizing them openly. That can be classed as, well, bullying.

I may think FOX is as stupid as the next guy thinks them, but Obama just looks like a fool criticizing them and not going on any of their shows, IMO. Like my football coach said, they can play dirty, but you can't just cry to the refs. You just have to find a way to beat them.

In my opinion, it's pretty immature of Obama to call out Fox News for calling him a socialist/fascist. Sure, that's a bit of a low-blow, but politicians, as a rule, need to develop a very thick skin to succeed.

Hence, my post above.

My football team was getting roughed up by endless uncalled penalties committed by the other team. So my coach said we had to work extra hard, because crying to the refs was not a good option.

The problem is that Fox isn't actually an objective news source, it's completely subjective, and they really can't be classified as news. I was surprised that CNN and MSNBC actually think it's a news station.

MSNBC is as bad as FOX, it's just Democratic.

Fixed.

The problem with FOX isn't the fact that it skews like any other news station, its the level of warping that makes it noticeable. I mean, some of the interpretations of Democratic party member's actions have been simply ridiculous, so ridiculous to even be credible.

Fixed.

The problem is not whether they are correct, but whether they are neutral. In that way, MSNBC is just as bad as FOX.

You could technically call that censorship, or unfairly suppressing the opposing point of view though.

Having the President talk shizzle about you is almost guaranteed to make people oppose you more.

you guys must have missed my post in the other topic



clearly Fox news is out to derail the current administration and the white house should treat them as a forum for direct opposition.

no matter how bad Bush was no one from CNN or MSNBC called for people to actively go out and protest against him. None of their newscaster went out and spoke at Anti-White House legislation rallies, like John Stossel is doing for American for Prosperity, either

The President can do interviews with whoever he wants and if he knows that Fox is going to paint him in a negative light then why bother?

Obama is a citizen of the United States of America. He is protected by the Bill of Rights. If he wants to call Glenn Beck a liar, he can call Glenn Beck a liar. If he doesn't want to go on a news show that goes out of its way to attack him and his political views, he doesn't have to. The day they get rid of that freedom is the day you can start nice doggy!ing about censorship.

I don't see how Obama is crying to a referee about this. Actually, one might find Obama giving two fingers up to FOX as working extra hard.

I'm pretty sure that Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, and I may be wrong here, as biased as they are, didn't spend months promoting the October 11 Gay Rights March on Washington, nor did they give it wall to wall coverage and hail it as one of the greatest days in American history. I didn't even know about the march until the day it happened. Contrast that with the so called Tea Party. Nor did Olbermann and Maddow proclaim that their goal was to "take down the administration", as Beck and Hannity both have.

Then there's a debate about the networks news programs, as opposed to the opinion shows featuring those I listed above. I don't know about MSNBC, I don't watch them, but there are examples of Fox News.

Video here