White House interim communications director Anita Dunn assumed the role of lead Fox News Channel-basher this weekend. The attack was a dud. The left-leaning Nation magazine ridiculed President Obamas press shop for turning him into the whiner-in-chief. AOL media columnist Jeff Bercovici called the war on Fox a losers strategy that signals weakness. And thats the friendly fire.
Dunn found refuge in rival CNNs green zone where she blasted Fox News as a research arm of the Republican Party. Unhappy with headline-generating Fox News hosts who have wrested control of the news cycle from Team Obama Dunn complained about opinion journalism masquerading as news.
Well that is certainly an apt description of an Obama-sympathizing news segment on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer which purported to fact check a Saturday Night Live skit mocking the presidents lack of accomplishments.
Yes the real news fact-checked the fake news to cover for Obamas deficiencies. Zero complaints from the White House communications office about that. Or about authentic CNN journalist Anderson Cooper using his prime-time show to make vulgar sexual jokes about Tea Party activists. Or about the joint White House-ABC News health care reform infomercial that aired earlier this summer.
Some opinion journalism is more equal than others.
Debates about the blurred lines between opinion and journalism are all well and good. But dont the talking-points crafters in the Oval Office have something better to do than carp about the talking points they dont like hearing on the one cable network that hasnt been completely overrun by Obama sycophants? (Full disclosure: Ive been a Fox News contributor since 2001.)
Where are the seasoned press gurus to help Nobel Peace Prize-winner Barack Obama appear more presidential and less petty and thuggish?
The corruptocratic affiliations of Obamas communications team are illuminating. His press shop cant rise above the fray because theyve been entrenched in the Beltway fray for years. They cant help themselves.
Democratic media consultant Dunns claim to fame is her decade-long service as chief strategist for disgraced Democrat and former Senate Majority Leader turned health care lobbyist Tom Daschle. She was in the thick of his failed re-election campaign as Daschle asserted a bogus property-tax homestead exemption claim on his $1.9 million D.C. mansion -- which he listed as his primary residence despite voting in South Dakota and claiming it as his primary residence in order to run for re-election. And Dunn was with Daschle during the years he failed to pay gobs of taxes on a luxury car and driver provided to him by crony donor Leo Hindery Jr.
After working as communications manager for Obamas political action committee and then as senior adviser to his 2008 presidential campaign Dunn trained White House press secretary and anti-Fox sniper Robert Gibbs. Deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer is another young protege of Dunns who worked with her on the disastrous 2004 Daschle re-election campaign.
(Another Daschle connection: Obama transition adviser John Podesta who served as Daschles counselor and has helped staff the administration with many alumni of his left-wing think tank the Center for American Progress. One CAP fellow Hugo Chavez-admiring radical Mark Lloyd has attacked conservative talk radio -- the second home of several Fox News hosts -- and is now the FCCs Diversity Czar.)
Dunn is married to Robert Bauer a Washington D.C. corporate lawyer who served as general counsel for Obama for America. It was Bauer who lobbied the Justice Department unsuccessfully last fall to pursue a criminal probe of American Issues Project (AIP) an independent group that sought to run an ad spotlighting Obamas ties to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.
It was Bauer who attempted to sic the DOJ on GOP donor Harold Simmons and sought his prosecution for funding the ad. It was Bauer who tried to bully television stations across the country to compel them to pull the spot. All on Obamas behalf.
While conservatives revel in the lefts hysteria over Fox News Channels dominance more of Obamas friends hope hell wipe his nose and man up. Fat chance. As long as hes surrounded by career flacks who demonize dissent to distract from the Beltway stench the White House will remain an all-whine zone.
Michelle Malkin makes news and waves with a unique combination of investigative journalism and incisive commentary. She is the author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild .
White House interim communications director Anita Dunn assumed the role of lead Fox News Channel-basher this weekend. The attack was a dud. The left-leaning Nation magazine ridiculed President Obamas press shop for turning him into the whiner-in-chief. AOL media columnist Jeff Bercovici called the war on Fox a losers strategy that signals weakness. And thats the friendly fire.
Dunn found refuge in rival CNNs green zone where she blasted Fox News as a research arm of the Republican Party. Unhappy with headline-generating Fox News hosts who have wrested control of the news cycle from Team Obama Dunn complained about opinion journalism masquerading as news.
Well that is certainly an apt description of an Obama-sympathizing news segment on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer which purported to fact check a Saturday Night Live skit mocking the presidents lack of accomplishments.
Yes the real news fact-checked the fake news to cover for Obamas deficiencies. Zero complaints from the White House communications office about that. Or about authentic CNN journalist Anderson Cooper using his prime-time show to make vulgar sexual jokes about Tea Party activists. Or about the joint White House-ABC News health care reform infomercial that aired earlier this summer.
Some opinion journalism is more equal than others.
Debates about the blurred lines between opinion and journalism are all well and good. But dont the talking-points crafters in the Oval Office have something better to do than carp about the talking points they dont like hearing on the one cable network that hasnt been completely overrun by Obama sycophants? (Full disclosure: Ive been a Fox News contributor since 2001.)
Where are the seasoned press gurus to help Nobel Peace Prize-winner Barack Obama appear more presidential and less petty and thuggish?
The corruptocratic affiliations of Obamas communications team are illuminating. His press shop cant rise above the fray because theyve been entrenched in the Beltway fray for years. They cant help themselves.
Democratic media consultant Dunns claim to fame is her decade-long service as chief strategist for disgraced Democrat and former Senate Majority Leader turned health care lobbyist Tom Daschle. She was in the thick of his failed re-election campaign as Daschle asserted a bogus property-tax homestead exemption claim on his $1.9 million D.C. mansion -- which he listed as his primary residence despite voting in South Dakota and claiming it as his primary residence in order to run for re-election. And Dunn was with Daschle during the years he failed to pay gobs of taxes on a luxury car and driver provided to him by crony donor Leo Hindery Jr.
After working as communications manager for Obamas political action committee and then as senior adviser to his 2008 presidential campaign Dunn trained White House press secretary and anti-Fox sniper Robert Gibbs. Deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer is another young protege of Dunns who worked with her on the disastrous 2004 Daschle re-election campaign.
(Another Daschle connection: Obama transition adviser John Podesta who served as Daschles counselor and has helped staff the administration with many alumni of his left-wing think tank the Center for American Progress. One CAP fellow Hugo Chavez-admiring radical Mark Lloyd has attacked conservative talk radio -- the second home of several Fox News hosts -- and is now the FCCs Diversity Czar.)
Dunn is married to Robert Bauer a Washington D.C. corporate lawyer who served as general counsel for Obama for America. It was Bauer who lobbied the Justice Department unsuccessfully last fall to pursue a criminal probe of American Issues Project (AIP) an independent group that sought to run an ad spotlighting Obamas ties to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers.
It was Bauer who attempted to sic the DOJ on GOP donor Harold Simmons and sought his prosecution for funding the ad. It was Bauer who tried to bully television stations across the country to compel them to pull the spot. All on Obamas behalf.
While conservatives revel in the lefts hysteria over Fox News Channels dominance more of Obamas friends hope hell wipe his nose and man up. Fat chance. As long as hes surrounded by career flacks who demonize dissent to distract from the Beltway stench the White House will remain an all-whine zone.
Michelle Malkin makes news and waves with a unique combination of investigative journalism and incisive commentary. She is the author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild .
