While President Obama may not be losing any sleep over his administration’s ongoing kerfuffle with Fox News, he might want to spend some waking hours reviewing just how it is he finds himself in the situation he now finds himself in. Whether he comes out smelling like a rose or not, the whole episode reeks of junior-varsity level tactical thought on his part.
President Barack Obama trailed by Fox News correspondent Major Garrett
For openers, what on earth led him to believe there was any way to decisively “win” this debate? Even if he could conclusively establish a right-wing bias at Fox, would that absolve him of the need to provide access to a news organization of that size? Whether the other reporters think of the Fox crew as one of the gang or not, Fox is well-established as a news outlet, and has a critical mass of viewers & listeners significantly larger than most news organizations – many of which openly admit to have a distinct point of view and have no problem being included in the journalist pool. The government is accountable to the people, and the people depend on the press to remain informed of the goings-on of their government. This process may not be codified explicitly in law – it certainly is implicit in The Bill of Rights – but for the President to act as if it isn’t binding on him, or as if he need not govern transparently before a biased press, is naive at best and scary at worst. That Fox and the White House are chatting behind closed doors about this hopefully indicates that this tedium is going to pass soon, and the news can stop being the news, at least to some degree.
Naturally, for Fox News and their audience, the news will always be the news. That is Fox’s reason for being! There was an opening in the news marketplace for a news outlet to present itself like a respectable news outlets generally would, but to openly cater specifically to the right-wing world view under the guise of counter-programming the other news product. One can be repulsed by the content of Fox News, but you can’t question the logic of the business decisions behind its creation. Whether Rupert Murdoch is a genius or just an opportunist isn’t for me to say; but it is obvious he had the cable news market sized up pretty well, and his efforts have produced hefty rewards for him to date. He is entitled to them.
If President Obama ends up back-pedaling on this issue, it may well be a victory for Fox News as a corporation, and they will be entitled to their victory lap. That such a victory will produce the exact sort of legitimacy the White House was attempting to deny Fox will serve merely as a fitting consequence for such an obvious miscalculation. Naturally, it will be the right-wingers who love Fox who will crow the loudest at any such victory, for this all plays perfectly into the Conservatives-As-Victims narrative the right has been pushing so hard in recent years (it plays better than the old “stop whining – life isn’t fair – pull yourself up by the bootstraps and go around the obstacles in your way” stuff…)
In the same way that the right misreads Fox’s success as representing a parallel success for right-wing political thought, they will misread Obama’s misstep in handling an adversarial news outlet as wider proof of significant buyer’s remorse in the country with respect to the President’s election. That this angle will be lost on everyone but them won’t be any more revelatory to them now than the repudiation of the right was in November 2008. It isn’t realistic to expect the Fox audience to be capable of self-critical introspection and adaptation to any truth contrary to their outlook. After all, they don’t go to Fox seeking the truth, they go seeking fairness and balance. There is certainly a contradiction when people who see truth as being made up of black-n-white universals seek out an information source that makes a point of balance and fairness, but this is part and parcel of life in the right-wing echo chamber – “The truth itself may be biased and unfair, but that doesn’t mean we have to look at it!” It would be best if the rest of us stop waiting around for Fox to acknowledge their business strategy and for their audience to be honest about the reasons they are brand-loyal to Fox News. As always, the truth of this matter is considerably biased and demonstrably unfair, and life has to go on. Debating it on prime-time Fox would change nothing.
In the end, this episode brings the country no step closer to having its major problems solved. It might be nice to see the government reminded they are accountable to all – even those with whom they disagree – but I don’t think there is enough public interest – or sympathy for Fox and their friends – to strike any lasting respect of that sort into those in our government.
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Rudy Grahn Jr. is a former talk show host turned writer turned analyst who currently writes primarily on the personal on his weblog Rudayday.com. Rudy is also a digital photographer whose work has been featured on PBS, NBC, and web outlets like BoingBoing.com and The Morning News. His nickname “Rudayday” was conferred upon him by John Romano in the 20th Century. Rudy Grahn article archive.
