There's little doubt that at hand is an ongoing effort by the Obama White House to marginalize the Fox News Channel - especially after the administration attempted to leave Fox out of the White House pool last week. That is something conservative columnist Cal Thomas said is eerily comparable to Cold War tactics of the old Soviet Union.
On the Fox News Channel's Oct. 24 "Fox News Watch," Thomas alluded to an Oct. 21 column he wrote, which he compared what the Soviets did with radio signals that penetrated the Iron Curtain to deliver a message of freedom from Western Europe - they jammed them.
"I wrote a column on this, this week - if I can promote myself and my own column," Thomas said. "I likened it to what happened during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union especially tried to jam the signals of the Voice of America and Radio Europe, other entities that were trying to pump truth into the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries, the so-called captive nations."
As Thomas explained, the White House is attempting to dismiss the credibility of Fox News, an outlet that has had some success of bringing stories to the forefront that could embarrass the President Barack Obama - like ACORN corruption, the past deeds of former Obama "green jobs" czar Van Jones and White House Communications Director Anita Dunn expressing her affection for Mao Tse Tung. The administration's fear - those stories could bleed over from just Fox News into other news outlets.
"What we have here is an attempt to isolate one network, to give it the mark of Cain, to declare it to be illegitimate, so that as Judy [Miller] said, these stories that are discovered here - Fox isn't making them up," Thomas said. "Fox didn't create Van Jones and his signing of petitions and the defense of a cop killer. Fox isn't doing this, but if it seeps over to The New York Times, The Washington Post - then the rest of the country might find out what's going on."
But this won't last forever, Thomas explained. Eventually journalists other than those at Fox News will realize the opportunities before them and seize upon them, even if it means making the President and his administration look bad.
"I'll tell you what's going to happen - I'll make a prediction here and I don't do it very often," Thomas said. "When his, the President's ratings continue to slip, and according to one poll they just dipped below 50 percent and blood is in the water for the media - they may love this guy, but they love their careers and the controversy more. They're going to go after him like a shark."
Thomas suggested in his column that instead of employing these Chicago political machine/Saul Alinsky-type tactics against Fox News, they should have done just the opposite to fight back.
"Rather than boycott Fox - if the administration were smart - it would flood the network with its spokespeople," he wrote. "The administration apparently believes it needs an enemy to avert scrutiny from its socialist agenda, the undermining of free speech and the corruption of the U.S. Constitution. Because Republicans have no credible national leader, the administration has settled on Fox News."
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I first heard Cal Thomas
October 24, 2009 - 22:37 ET by legacyrepublicanI first heard Cal Thomas when he came and spoke for my YR group.
Over the years I have enjoyed his insightful ability to bring issues into their proper perspective. The VOA point is well made.
But, I really wonder if they flooded FOX if it would have been in their best interests. FOX has too many questions to ask the WH.
I think the POTUS and the WH realized that it was damned if they do and damned if they don't. They just went to the playbook and said they would stick with the plan.
Cal Thomas
October 24, 2009 - 23:12 ET by merlin61I like Cal Thomas. He tells it like it is. Yes, the White House would like to control any dissent from their policies they are trying to force down our throats.
Good for Fox News, its the only news agency that goes for the truth and does true investigations. Its a real news program. The White House just doesn't know what real news is because of the State Run Media.
"Soviets Jamming Voice of
October 25, 2009 - 06:56 ET by notonmywatch"Soviets Jamming Voice of America"
it's worth googling soviet woodpecker if you haven't before. not so much for the wikipedia link, but for the more interesting ones down the page
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Noto...ham radio operators
October 25, 2009 - 12:39 ET by celatorNoto...ham radio operators have been wondering about the Soviet woodpecker signal for years. Lots of articles about what it might be in amateur radio magazines. You could hear it on several frequencies actually (hard to tell if it was a resonant signal on some of those frequencies). Very weird sound. Sort of like packet or pulse position modulation.
You could hear the signal all over the world, which meant that it was very powerful, wattage wise. The frequency, some thought, might be weather control attempts, an attempt at signal surveillance, packet messaging for intelligence, or any number of other guesses.
As HAARP became more well known, some speculated whether there was a connection between the woodpecker signal and the stuff HAARP might be messing around with in the ionosphere. I don't know where I come out on that, though there was some sort of Soviet/US agreement to control weather signed some years ago.
I had to chuckle at the latest "scare" about cell phones triggering cancer in some people. There's a number of contradictory studies about whether ham radio operators had a higher incidence of brain cancer because of high levels of transmission power levels. Studies came out every 4-5 years, it seems. Results were: yes, they do cause cancer, no they don't, yes they do, no they don't, yes they do, no they don't etc etc etc.
If people understood how much electronic radiation was passing through their brains at any given moment, they'd pass out: cell phones, radio, television, weather satellites, gps, cosmic sources, radar, aircraft, cb radios, HAARP, radio towers, police radios, keyless car lock devices etc etc. Lots and lots and lots.
No citizen's right to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, or property is safe as long as Obama is President of the United States.
But try Fox must
October 24, 2009 - 23:33 ET by metaphorsbwithuThe only problem with that is that Fox can ask all the questions they want to those spokespeople but they'll not get any answers ... at least not truthful ones. It will be very frustrating and quite a challenge.
"... when we deal with people, considerations other than truth enter the question." - Dr. Stadler to Dagny in Atlas Shrugged.
metaphorsbwithu
So what?
October 25, 2009 - 01:59 ET by Bull Moose ProgressiveAnd that is where investigative journalism should begin...
If FOX isn't digging past the lies and getting real evidence and answers then they're not doing their jobs.
a perfect analogy
October 25, 2009 - 02:21 ET by caiobabebecause despite the 'iron curtain' jamming the voice of free America, the United States always found a way around their frequency interruptions. So will be the case here with FOX.
''I'll tell you what's
October 25, 2009 - 02:54 ET by DoktorFranken''I'll tell you what's going to happen - I'll make a prediction here and I don't do it very often,'' Thomas said. ''When his, the President's ratings continue to slip, and according to one poll they just dipped below 50 percent and blood is in the water for the media - they may love this guy, but they love their careers and the controversy more. They're going to go after him like a shark.''
Here's my take/prediction on this: When his ratings continue to slip (and they will) the media, who have propped-up this fraud with everything they had in their collective arsenals, will follow him down hoping (there's one of those Magical words) that at some point The Won will prevail and America will finally be brought to heel to the Mighty Leftist Cause.
''Rather than boycott Fox - if the administration were smart - it would flood the network with its spokespeople,'' he wrote.
Ah, but then they would have to deal with real questions and their lies would not be bolstered as with the other State Controlled Networks. They would be confronted with . . . . the Truth. They're not trained to really handle that situation very well.
''The administration apparently believes it needs an enemy to avert scrutiny from its socialist agenda, the undermining of free speech and the corruption of the U.S. Constitution.''
The Left ALWAYS needs an enemy. That's how they interact with the world to survive. Someone is always having the blame thrust upon them by the Left. To them it is like CO2 to all plant life around the entire globe. They would die without it.
''Because Republicans have no credible national leader, the administration has settled on Fox News.''
Republicans may not have a credible national leader but Conservatives have quite a few. At this point the ''Republican Party'' is darned lucky that Conservatives are going to use them to win 2010 and 2012. Without Conservatives the Republicans would be . . . Democrats.
JMHO, you understand.
If Saul Alinsky owned a news channel it would be MSNBC. ---- Me
Cal Thomas' FOX -ish Smear against Obama
October 25, 2009 - 04:37 ET by John Bryans FontaineRight-wing media claim Obama is criticizing Fox for "tough questions" and "reporting the truth"
http://mediamatters.org/research/200910240004
Isn't that where they learned how to
October 25, 2009 - 05:08 ET by Dragonsbreathuse those tactics?
"1/20/2013 The end of a Error"
HHMMMMMMM
October 25, 2009 - 05:56 ET by Massage_Master07I went to mediamatters website posted above and clicked on the links provided by them disputing Fox's claims about ACORN. Guess what, the links they provided DON'T WORK. LMFAO
Actually the link works just fine
October 25, 2009 - 10:55 ET by John Bryans FontaineFox News ran with San Bernardino ACORN video without needed fact check. On September 15 and 16, Fox News devoted significant programming to conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe and Townhall.com columnist Hannah Giles' video of their interactions with a San Bernardino ACORN worker who claimed she murdered her ex-husband and gave advice on how to run a brothel, but stated after the video was released that she had merely been attempting to "shock them as much as they were shocking me." In running with the video, Fox News hosts frequently promoted the fake claim that the ACORN employee killed her ex-husband without fact-checking the allegation or indicating that they had contacted ACORN for a response. In fact, ACORN called the video "an obvious set of lies and manipulations," and the San Bernardino Police Department found her former husbands "alive and well."
link leads to
http://mediamatters.org/research/200909160039
How much does Media Matters pay you?
October 25, 2009 - 11:33 ET by JWFYou have been here 27 weeks, 2 posts, both of them contain links to media matters.
I am going to go over to media matters and post links to NewsBusters. Wait.... Dangit. I don't have an account at Media Matters. I don't visit media matters. I don't care about Media Matters.
John Bryans Foutaine - FAIL
FOX didn't "fact check" a
October 25, 2009 - 11:36 ET by Jack BauerFOX didn't "fact check" a non-induced, never asked for, blurted out, confession to murder?
Ha ha. That's the funniest thing to come out of Media Matters in a long time.
Obama can't get off the Alinsky plantation!
October 25, 2009 - 11:44 ET by jefflebowskiHussein Hopenchange has tried to marginalize Rush...didn't work. Tea parties...didn't work. Now Fox News...didn't work..their ratings continue to increase. The liberals need a bad guy badly. But their ham-handed attempts are so obvious. Plus, they are totally tone-deaf of the rage of the responsible American (read conservative) these days. RINOs also share this problem.
There's going to be change. Oh yes, there's going to be change!
Angry White Dude
www.angrywhitedude.c...
She also scratched a pimple on her butt.
October 25, 2009 - 13:43 ET by JWFWhile proclaiming "I am scratching a pimple on my butt" Fox didn't fact check that either. But was it really on pimple? Only Media Matters can tell.
Shame on Fox! I still don't know to this day what kind of carpeting was in that office.
Sincerely,
a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.
0bama vs. Fox
October 25, 2009 - 15:13 ET by nandrelliThomas' suggestion that the "flood" the Fox network is good in one sense, but the problem with it is that the 0bamamites know that Fox will not just sit back and accept everything 0bama says at face value. The Fox people will ask questions, embarassing questions, and the 0bamamites will not be able to get away with their propaganda (remember the reaction when Chris Wallace asked Bill Clinton why he didn't do more to stop Bin Laden and terrorism in general? Clinton blew up at Wallace, made all sorts of accusations, got a sympathetic treatment from the MSM, and hasn't been on Fox since).
IF the 0bamamites were honest, that would be a good approach. But we have seen enough by now to know that 0bama himself is a fraud, as are the people working for him.