Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Faux News - Fox in the White Hen House

Finally. Somebody calls them on it, and we find out -- what?

ABC's Jake Tapper pushes the point, forcing Gibbs into showing it's a smear campaign based upon opinion programming the White House doesn't like:

Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one –

[..]

Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage.

Tapper: But that’s a pretty sweeping declaration that they are “not a news organization.” How are they any different from, say –

Gibbs: ABC -

Tapper: ABC. MSNBC. Univision. I mean how are they any different?

Gibbs: You and I should watch sometime around 9 o’clock tonight. Or 5 o’clock this afternoon.

Tapper: I’m not talking about their opinion programming or issues you have with certain reports. I’m talking about saying thousands of individuals who work for a media organization, do not work for a “news organization” — why is that appropriate for the White House to say?

Gibbs: That’s our opinion.
(emphasis mine)
So. Hannity and Beck. Not "Fox News".

And it's fine for the White House to "push a point of view", an opinion, if you will. But not for the rest of us. Well, unless it's the correct point of view.

Nothing about Olbermann and Maddow and Matthews over at MSNBC. They're still a news organization. Maureen Dowd & Paul Krugmann and a host of others at the New York Times. The White House Approved Point of View. Peachy. I get the picture, Comrade Gibbs.

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