Monday, September 21, 2009

Obama's Sunday Morning Message to the Fox Network and Chris Wallace: "Oh You Can Dance, Allright, Just Not at My Party"


President Barack Obama went on a media blitz Sunday morning, doing five consecutive, brilliantly choreographed interviews on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and Univision, while snubbing the Fox Network's "Fox News Sunday" with host Chris Wallace. This is the same Fox Broadcasting Network that chose to air the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" instead of Obama's health-care-reform speech September 9th. What goes around, comes around, huh?

Seems Wallace didn't take the snub lightly, whining to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Friday evening about the Obama administration, which apparently has gotten under his not-so-thick skin:

"They are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington. They constantly are on the phone, or emailing me complaining, well, you had this guest. Or you did this thing. I mean, they are working the umps all the time. I think it works for the others. It doesn't work with me."

Normally, Wallace does a decent job of containing his partisan leanings, but I guess this rejection was simply too large for the ego to ignore publicly. It's understandable, and to be expected, for various Fox personalities to lash out at Obama and Democrats. But for Wallace to imply that the Obama team is any tougher on the media than, say, the Bush administration, is an absolute joke. No one controlled the message and the audience better than Karl Rove; no president spoke less to the media, or derided them when he did, more than Dubya; and no administration operated under a bigger veil of secrecy than the Bushies. I guess for Wallace, it just seems worse when you're no longer at the head of the table.

So here's my advice to Wallace: next time the president of the United States of America gives a prime time address to a joint session of Congress on a critical issue, ya might want to convince the execs to run it instead of some mindless reality show. Then maybe when Obama throws another party you'll get invited. The truth is, Obama didn't need the right-wing fanatics to win the election, and he certainly doesn't need them to pass health care or push through any other of his critical domestic or foreign policies (he just needs some cajones). If these folks, and the Fox Network, wish to marginalize themselves and extract themselves from the debate, that's their choice. Obama's message to them Sunday morning was clear: I don't need you either.


On another note, we could use your help at The The Adrienne Shelly Foundation. We're a 501 c 3 tax-exempt, non-profit organization dedicated in my late wife's honor, and with a simple mission: supporting women filmmakers. Adrienne, who wrote, directed and starred in the hit film WAITRESS, was killed November 1, 2006. Through the Foundation, her commitment to filmmaking lives on. We've established scholarships, grants, finishing funds, screenwriting fellowships and living stipends at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts/Kanbar Institute of Film; Columbia University; American Film Institute; Women in Film; IFP; the Nantucket Film Festival; the Tribeca Film Institute; and the Sundance Institute. Your generous contribution will go a long way towards helping us achieve this very important mission. Please click here to make a donation. Thank you.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice one Andy. I'm with you 100%. The only thing I'd add is this. Without making it sound like a conspiracy theory, the fact is that Fox News is part of a systematic effort on the right to delegitimize the President. If the White House is in turn trying to delegitimize Fox News, then more power to them. Simply put, Fox News is NOT legitimate as a news organization. Obama didn't speak to Scientologists, or 9/11truthers, or Drudge. Or the Daily Show even! He only spoke to real news outlets this weekend. Fox is not a real news outlet. Period.

- Barney

Anonymous said...

Little whiney-assed milquetoast demons is the best description I have for these people who are trying to evoke insurrection in the US. They see their hold on power slipping away and they'll use their minions to destroy everything rather than to relinquish what they believe to be their rightful place. The fact that nothing remains the same forever does not seem to resonate with these people. They expect that their place is reserved for themselves and their heirs and that should never be challenged. These are the same types as those who declared that the Third Reich would exist for a thousand years. Funny how that didn't quite work out, eh?

Anonymous said...

The only problem is that the right still has a very excellent media machine. The Dems did not get all the coverage that the Repubs out of power get.

The Dems just don't seem to have the strength to fight the fight against these folks. Obama needs to tell the wavering Dems that they have to come along or they are out.
We won. Why are the Dems bowing to the Repubs when are they want to do is destroy them? They encourage all the white nuts to come out (some very dangerously) against everything that the president wants to do.
I just don't get it. I sure wish someone could explain it to me.

Anonymous said...

How much of the media does the Left Wing need before they are happy?

The New York Times isn't enough for you? NBC and all its affiliates aren't enough for you? ABC, headed by Clinton's Stephanopoulous isn't enough for you? CBS with it's Rather infected crowd isn't enough for you? Bill Moyers isn't enough for you? 90% of the Washington press corps admitting they voted Democrat isn't enough for you?

When is enough enough??????

There is ONE - ONLY ONE - network that is not in the tank for the Left Wing. And why is it that you NEVER ask yourself why it gets such high ratings?

Can it be that a lot of people are sick and tired of the obvious in the tank bias that the main stream media has for the left? Did it not occur to you that the media is focused on either cost, both of which is deep blue, and ignores most of the rest of the country?

America is a center right country and it will always be that way. Live with it.

There is a reason why the only channel that leans conservative has higher ratings than all its cable competition COMBINED.

You just can't accept it. That much I get

kjgp25171 said...

I agree with everything you said except the part about a mindless reality show. The kids who wind up in the top 20 are versatile, devoted, committed, excellent dancers. These dancers are to be admired for the attention they pay to their craft. these kids are anything but mindless.

Jim said...

while several of the networks may be more left of Fox by comparison, they are not actively promoting the success of the Democratic Party. Fox New does use talking points, gives air time to Republican politicians with softball interviews. Comparing the other networks to Fox is like comparing house cats to a tiger. Fox news reporters are always looking for red meat for their viewers, they are not looking to establish facts for a story the way a legitimate news outfit does.
Add to the right wing noise machine the Clear Channel talk radio hosts and "news reports" for those hundreds of outfits and you have a real political machine in place that Rove played to promote war, incite "values voters" and to get the poor and uneducated to vote against their economic interests.

Anonymous said...

4:41:

The Dems do not have a network that is joined at the him to them like Fox News. Fox News promotes the Repub agenda 24/7.

What is it you don't understand about reality?

Anonymous said...

10:35

Actually they do. They are called NBC (and all of its iterations), ABC, CBS, CNN, the NY Times and the Washington Post, amongst others.

Look at CNN - it's first President was LBJ's chief of staff. Look at NBC - the late Tim Russert was a key advisor to Mario Cuomo and Patrick Moynihan. Chris Matthews was Tip O'Neill's employee. Look at ABC - Stephanoupous was a senior Clintonite. And lets not even get to CBS with Rather and his corruption, which cost him his job.

What is it that YOU don't understand about reality?

What is it that you don't understand about THAT

The Ostroy Report said...

Hey guys, Anon 146 is right. When I think "ABC" I always immediately think "George Stephanopoulos." They're one and the same. He's the face of the network. And yes, that he once worked for Clinton definitely means that the entire network is in the tank for Obama. So, all of this is entirely logical.

Anonymous said...

fox news, it's really not a news channel, more like bad gossips and made up stuff mixed together. :-)