Fox News on Obama's Fox Attacks posted by Ari Melber on 10/17/2008 @ 4:40pm
Barack Obama gave Fox News a hard time this week. He tweaked the channel at the last debate and mocked their coverage at the Al Smith dinner, with Rupert Murdoch sitting in the audience. The campaign says it decided to confront Fox more aggressively, as I recently reported, and now Fox is giving the issue prime time attention.
Greta Van Susteren devoted a segment to Obama's "Attack Fox Strategy" on Thursday, which ran as the show's top clip online all day Friday. Citing the remarks from the debate and the dinner, Van Susteren laid out the question. "It doesn't end there," she said. "According to the magazine The Nation, an aide to Senator Obama actually says this is part of a coordinated strategy by the Democratic nominee to take on Fox News. Why is Senator Obama doing this?"
The answer, at least according to writer and Fox contributor Bill Sammon, is nerves. "(Obama) must be a little nervous if he feels compelled to beat up on FOX News," Sammon said.
He also argued that coverage of Obama by other outlets has been damning: "There was a quote in The New York Times about Obama, and they're quoting Obama's assistant. He says Obama likes 'Chocolate roasted peanut protein and bottles of hard-to-find Organic Brew Black Forest Berry Hunt Honest Tea. You can't make that stuff up. FOX News didn't come up with that. The New York Times came up with that," said Sammon -- playing the old Organic Brew Black Forest Berry Hunt Honest Tea card. (It retails for $1.79 if you want to try it.) Anyway, I already gave my take on Obama's rationale in the original article, but it is interesting to see Fox insiders assess the whole thing. And unlike Sammon, Van Susteren gives Obama some credit for pressing his case with humor.
"I actually thought he was sort of funny," she said, "sort of poking us a little bit." " "Maybe I'm the only one," she added, as you can see in the segment:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/373392
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
