In a Politico story that made Yahoo's top news headlines, Daniel Libit reports on high-level (and very visible) Democrats who are willing to say that the Obama administration's attacks on Fox News have been unfair, counter-productive and rather silly.Democrat Bob Beckel, for instance has been under contract with Fox News for six years. “I talk to more persuadable voters in a month than anybody on MSNBC and CNN talks to in a year.” No doubt about it. As Libit writes, "Fox is where the viewers are — No. 1 in the prime-time news ratings and drawing more than twice as many viewers on weeknights as either MSNBC or CNN."
But it's not just about the numbers.
Lanny Davis, the former White House counsel for Bill Clinton, who provoked mindless liberals everywhere when he said that Fox News was the fairest of any of the cable networks in its treatment of Hillary Clinton, says that the claims of conservative bias directed at Fox are without foundation. And those claims come from hypocrites.
Asks Davis, “Is there a difference between Fox and MSNBC?” You count the number of guests on Rachel [Maddow] and Keith [Olbermann] who are conservative Republicans. If you get to double digits, I’ll buy you dinner for each one.”
Liberal Susan Estrich is another regular on Fox and she has encouraged others to join her there particularly for Fox News' high standards. “They are the most professional network of any I have dealt with. If you are a Democrat who wants to deliver mindless talking points on Fox, it’s probably best to go to MSBNC and hope you get a chance to recite them. I think Fox encourages critical views of all sides, asks different kinds of questions and wants to have diversity of view.”
Beckel agrees and says Fox viewers are more open to the Democratic side of the story than stereotypes might suggest.
Are you getting any of this, President Obama? Your much-touted war on Fox News has backfired badly. It has made you look intolerantly partisan and imperially egotistical -- even to Democrat insiders.
(A tip to those of you who write letters to editors -- the above paragraphs provide a wealth of material. Please use it.)
