When The War on Fox News broke out, I was quick to point out my skepticism that it would amount to anything; the refusal to do interviews with Fox folks, the criticisms from Robert Gibbs and Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director, seemed restatements of the obvious, and not designed to change anything. As I said then:
I find myself less than thrilled with the Obama folks, not because I think they're tilting at a losing windmill... but because they don't, really, have any interest in trying to change the status quo. Making Fox News the enemy suits their political agenda; "exposing" Fox as conservative (really? can you expose something so nakedly obvious?) is easy headlines... but no real payoff. Fox gets to be just what it is, the Obama folks get an easy scapegoat... and we get less and less served by good news outlets.
... And, well, the war is over. Anita Dunn "resigned" her post as Communications Director, and the next day, President Obama was announced to be having a sit down interview with Major Garrett. The War is Over. Let 1000 flowers bloom.
Or something. Garrett's not going to be the issue - he's another example of what passes for reporting at Fox (and a good illustration, really, that most TV news reporters are neither that memorable nor exceptionally great at reporting), and he's really only a symptom of the larger problem where hard news takes a backseat to what is mostly the televised version of talk radio; he'll get the tape that's eventually played over and over on O'Reilly and Hannity while they cherry pick some non-issue to make hay over... and the cycle continues.
Like I said, you'd need a clearer definition of what you're fighting for, and what you's like to see change, in order to make a "War on Fox" amount to something; and that was never there. And the snort of derision I have over throwing Dunn out to win favor with Murdoch and Co isnot one of surprise or anger. It's just the familiar, cynical feeling that this was what we were bound to get all along. And the thing I want - better, more informative news - is just a pipe dream, never to be seen again.
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