Fox News 1, Obama Administration 0

Charles Krauthammer just hit one out of the park in one of his latest columns at the Washington Post.  To be fair, the “mainstream media” actually did the heavy lifting, but Charles brought it to light where I don’t know of others doing so.

The Obama Administration has tried to marginalize Fox News, but has had little success.  Their one success that I can see is that none of the “mainstream media” has bothered to cover the story in any meaningful sort of way.  They’ve left Van Jones and the Acorn scandal alone for the most part which must be comforting to the sitting President.

But then the Obama administration tried to push too hard.  They wanted to set up interviews with everyone in the White House press pool except Fox.

Now, this isn’t new behavior for this administration in the big picture.  Recently, President Obama went on five Sunday news shows in one day.  One of them was the Spanish language station Univision.  I’m not saying it’s bad to be on Univision, but don’t you think it might have been a decent idea to go on Fox?  Obama didn’t.

What was new was that the “mainstream media” found at least part of it’s spine and some of its journalistic integrity.  They said no.

That’s it in a nutshell, but Mr. Krauthammer did a much better job than I.

From The Washington Post:

The White House has declared war on Fox News. White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Fox is “opinion journalism masquerading as news.” Patting rival networks on the head for their authenticity (read: docility), senior adviser David Axelrod declared Fox “not really a news station.” And Chief of Staff Emanuel told (warned?) the other networks not to “be led [by] and following Fox.”

Meaning? If Fox runs a story critical of the administration — from exposing “green jobs” czar Van Jones as a loony 9/11 “truther” to exhaustively examining the mathematical chicanery and hidden loopholes in proposed health-care legislation — the other news organizations should think twice before following the lead.

The signal to corporations is equally clear: You might have dealings with a federal behemoth that not only disburses more than $3 trillion every year but is extending its reach ever deeper into private industry — finance, autos, soon health care and energy. Think twice before you run an ad on Fox.

At first, there was little reaction from other media. Then on Thursday, the administration tried to make them complicit in an actual boycott of Fox. The Treasury Department made available Ken Feinberg, the executive pay czar, for interviews with the White House “pool” news organizations — except Fox. The other networks admirably refused, saying they would not interview Feinberg unless Fox was permitted to as well. The administration backed down.

This was an important defeat because there’s a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to delegitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret. White House aides openly told Politico that they’re engaged in a deliberate campaign to marginalize and ostracize recalcitrants, from Fox to health insurers to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Chalk one up for integrity, honesty, and ethical behaviour.

Mr. Obama, seriously, who are you trying to fool?  It ain’t workin’.