The White House has declared war on Fox News. It would be funny if it weren't disgusting. The arrogance of this administration is without parallel. For the President of the United States to not just believe, but to publicly state that he gets to unilaterally declare a major news source to be "not news" is sickening, but for the cheering section on the left to go along with this outrage is terrifying.
The excuse, according to administration officials, is that news should not have a "perspective" and Fox News has a perspective, therefore Fox News isn't news. Seriously? Let me get this straight. A major news program giving up an hour of its programing to promote the administration's policies is news without perspective? A prominent reporter openly insulting conservative protesters during his report is news without perspective? A major news program "fact checking" a comedy skit (a skit performed by liberals, no less - there should be a joke in that, shouldn't there?) is news without perspective? Multiple major news sources running with a fabricated story that smears a conservative pundit for days before they bother to fact check and find out it's false (and even then almost none of them offer an apology or a retraction) is news without perspective? Is anyone seriously claiming to buy this twisted logic?
This isn't about perspective. It's about the perspective people like and don't like. If you have a perspective that approves of the administration, you get a free pass. If you have a perspective that disapproves of the administration then you're "not really news". Don't you love how that works?
Does Fox News have a perspective? Of course they do! Here's a news flash for you: every major news source since Ben Franklin rolled off his first newspaper has had a perspective and an editorial policy of pushing that perspective. They all do it. Fox News is nowhere near unique in this regard. The only thing that makes Fox News unique is that their perspective leans conservative.
If you can't tell the difference between the commentary section and the news section, you should probably turn the TV off. If you don't know that every network has an agenda and that they all filter things through that agenda, you should probably turn the TV off. If you don't know that the White House doesn't get to declare who is and who isn't a news source ... Of course they know that. They were just counting on you not knowing that.
It is at least gratifying to see that, maybe this time, the administration has overreached itself in its arrogance. Kudos to the other major networks for refusing to play along. They knew that this behavior was wrong and they stopped it, even though it could have helped them in the short term. Now if only we could get more Americans to realize that short term benefits do not trump long term damage.
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