I’m sure most reasonable people who’ve watched the Fox News Channel have grown so frustrated by its unfair and unbalanced demagoguery that they’ve wanted throw things at the TV. I know I have.
With this in mind, it’s hard to blame Wesley Clark for raising his voice and getting visibly angry with a Fox News “journalist” during a brief live interview earlier this week. In fact, far from blaming Clark, it appears the on-air exchange may have bolstered Clark’s support.
(If you want see the whole interview for yourself, it’s still online at Fox News’ site)
The interview started in a predictable fashion. Fox News’ David Asman (insert infantile joke about name here) began implying from the outset that Clark was pushed into the race by the Clintons, a popular accusation among conservatives. Clark calmly dismissed the notion.
After this perfectly antagonistic beginning, Asman began asking Clark a comment the general made on Meet the Press over the weekend. Specifically, Asman showed a graphic of a Clark quote that called the war in Iraq a “sideshow” from the broader “war on terror.”
Clark, initially, seemed unfazed. He said, calmly, “For the war on terror it’s a terrible distraction and we should have gone directly after Osama bin Laden. Let’s be clear about what happened: this administration decided to go to war against Saddam Hussein, or at least to set all the plans in motion, while we were still bombing Afghanistan.”
Moments later, Asman interrupted to ask, “While our men and women are dying in Iraq, is it proper to call it a sideshow?”
Clark realized the question was typical Fox News nonsense, suggesting that it’s wrong for Clark to question the war “while our men and women are dying in Iraq.” Clark explained — loudly — that he found this unacceptable.
“Our men and women in Iraq are doing a fabulous job,” Clark said. “They’re doing a great job. I love them. I respect them and I honor them. My problem is with the president of the United States. He’s the one responsible for this. As he told us. He was going to make the decision when to go to war. He did. Our men and women are doing everything their country has asked them to do. But for the war on terror it’s not the right thing that we should ask them to do.”
Clark, raising his volume a few notches, continued, “Don’t you dare twist words into disrespect for the men and women in uniform. I love those men and women. I gave 34 years of my life to them. You better take my words the right way.”
Asman replied, “General, I’m just repeating your own words to you.” To which Clark said, “No, sir. No, sir. You are playing politics with the men and women in uniform.”
After some unintelligible crosstalk between them, Asman said, “Alright, general. Again, we were just reading back your statements. I’m sorry you got so upset at.. at our having done that. But that’s all we did. We didn’t have any implication beyond that.”
Clark responded, “You did have an implication. I find it very unfair.”
(Clark was in New Mexico, appearing via satellite. One got the impression that were Clark in the Fox News studio, he might have throttled Asman on the spot.)
Of course, it was ridiculous for Asman to play dumb, insisting somehow that Clark was overreacting to the recitation of his own quote. Obviously, Clark’s heated response came when Asman asked if it was improper to be making such comments while troops were under attack. By my count, Asman said at least four times, “I was just reading back your own statements,” pretending to be oblivious to the fact that this wasn’t what Clark was upset about. Typical Fox News nonsense.
As for the political angle, I was initially concerned that the interview could hurt Clark a bit. Some Dean fans began posting to Clark sites about how the general “lost his cool” and will now be seen as a “hot head.” (That’s ironic; isn’t Dean the one who lost his cool with Gephardt a couple of debates ago?)
Since then, however, I’ve seen the opposite reaction. Apparently, the fact that Clark was willing to forcibly stand up to Fox News’ bullying tactics was winning him great praise. Josh Marshall said the video was so positive for Clark, he’s surprised “the Clark campaign hasn’t put it up on their site.”
Kevin Drum commented, “This tired trope of pretending that anyone who criticizes presidential priorities is showing disrespect to the military is about as despicable as it gets, and it’s way past time for it to stop. Clark got good and pissed off about it, and deservedly so. I hope it embarrasses the clowns at Fox from pulling it again.”
Considering what most Dems think of Fox News, Clark is unlikely to suffer for yelling at one of their pseudo-hosts. In fact, Clark may actually benefit from his fiery response.