In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Democratic candidate Barack Obama lashed out at Fox News Channel, accusing it of portraying him as an "arrogant liberal" and making people not want to vote for him.
"I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls," Obama told liberal journalist Matt Bai. "[T]he way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latté-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?"
Echoing Hillary Clinton's infamous "vast right-wing conspiracy" charges, Obama implied FNC is part of a larger problem.
"I guess the point I'm making," he went on, "is that there is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it's powerful.
"People want to know that you're fighting for them, that you get them. And I actually think I do. But you know, if people are just seeing me in sound bites, they're not going to discover that."
Full Times Mag article is here.
Obama and other Democrats have long had it out for Fox News, refusing to hold a presidential primary debate on the network and railing on it repeatedly for not toeing the liberal line like its cable and broadcast competitors.
For its part, FNC and owner Rupert Murdoch have tried to make nice behind the scenes, requesting (and receiving) a private meeting with the Illinois Democrat where Murdoch allegedly promised to get staffers to go easier on Obama in exchange for a "tenative truce."
That truce is apparently over now.
(Sidenote: Murdoch's promise to Obama gathered no criticism from liberal elite reporters.)
Update 21:26. In tonight's presidential debate, Obama reiterated his critique of FNC saying the channel "doesn't very often" disagree with his Republican opponent.
