After seemingly learning his lesson last year, Obama has reopened his war on Fox News (http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/pres-obama-on-fox-news-wildly-successful-destructive-point-of-view_b32718). In a hard hitting interview in Rolling Stone, Obama (after laughing at the question) called Fox News "destructive" right after acknowledging his role in protecting a free press of course.


Wenner: “What do you think of Fox News? Do you think it’s a good institution for America and for democracy?”

Obama: “[Laughs] Look, as president, I swore to uphold the Constitution, and part of that Constitution is a free press. We’ve got a tradition in this country of a press that oftentimes is opinionated. The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition – it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It’s a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.

Shortly after this story made the rounds, Obama's Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said this:


"And if you're on the left, if you're somebody like Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow or one of the folks who helps to keep our government honest and pushes and prods to make sure that folks are true to progressive values," Burton continued, "then he thinks that those folks provide an invaluable service. But at the same time, we need to focus our energy and our efforts on the choice that Americans have this fall."

Obama, defender of the constitution and a free press, thinks the bias from Fox News - who like it or not is playing the role of an adversarial press, is destructive.

MSNBC on the other hand, and their partisan pundits Keith Olbermann and Obama lunch pal Rachel Maddow, "provide an invaluable service." What's that "invaluable service?" Keeping government honest by pushing and prodding to "to make sure that folks are true to progressive values."

So from the White House itself, it's not that Fox isn't a real news organization, it's just that their bias is unapproved and destructive while the bias at MSNBC is approved and invaluable.

The job of the press is not pushing and prodding "to make sure that folks are true to progressive values."

The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history.
The golden age in the mind of the left when they were the only game in town . The golden age when Cronkite could lie about a Tet defeat and the country believed him.

And of course you can add Rolling Stoned as one of those unbiased gatekeepers also.

I remind all that it was National Enquirer that pursued the Edwards story ,and not the traditional 4th Estate ,at the same time the Slimes was spreading false rumors about a McCain affair with a K Street lobbiest.

Hello, Steve:

So, you're just finding out that Obama is a liberal?? Is that the point of your post? You don't like it too much?

Well, I like it just fine.

excon

In a nutshell, the left, including our president, lives in some Orwellian reality where Fox News isn't a news organization because they're biased, but MSNBC IS a news organization because they're biased. Explain the logic there. Never mind, there is none.

JC Bennett at NRO puts it this way :

Diverse “new media” prevented the administration from flooding the discussion zone with a uniform message and provided a channel for organizing protests, leading to the tea-party movement. Resurgent state governments have filed suit to overturn Obamacare, and perhaps shrink the scope of the Commerce Clause in the process. … Obama came to office hoping to found the New New Deal, but America is no longer the America of FDR. A combination of the Founders’ gift of a fundamentally decentralist Constitution and the sheer elbow room of the American continent appears to be pointing us to a third era in American history, taking the technological and civil-rights gains of the second, centralized, industrial era, but returning to the decentralized and diverse community vision of the Founding.

The Great U-Turn - James C. Bennett - National Review Online (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/247822/great-u-turn-james-c-bennett?page=1)

JC Bennett at NRO puts it this way

In other words, WE are keeping him honest. Keep doing your job, tom.