{"id":9787,"date":"2007-01-31T12:30:27","date_gmt":"2007-01-31T17:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9787.html"},"modified":"2007-01-31T12:30:27","modified_gmt":"2007-01-31T17:30:27","slug":"keeping-fox-news-in-the-freezer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/keeping-fox-news-in-the-freezer\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Fox News ‘in the freezer’"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve often thought there should be some kind of consequence for Fox News’ more ridiculous behavior. Apparently, I’m not the only one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These are chilly days on Capitol Hill … and on the campaign trail for Fox News journalists — at least when they’re anywhere near Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).<\/p>\n

Sources tell The Sleuth that the Obama camp has “frozen out” Fox News reporters and producers in the wake of the network’s major screw-up in running with the erroneous Obama-the-jihadist story reported by Insight magazine. <\/p>\n

“I’m still in the freezer,” one Fox journalist said, noting that the people at Fox “suffering the most did nothing wrong.” (It was “Fox and Friends” host Steve Doocy who aired the Insight magazine piece, which reported that operatives connected to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) found out that Obama, as a child, was educated at a Muslim madrassah in Indonesia.)<\/p>\n

Another Fox journalist called the network’s airing of the story “unfortunate” for the network’s journalists who have to cover Obama and who are being adversely affected despite not being involved in the incident.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s difficult to feel sorry for Fox News’ team. Whether the individual correspondent assigned to Obama’s campaign was directly responsible for the bogus madrassa story or not, it’s still Fox News<\/i>. What are the chances that the reporting on his campaign will be fair? And if those chances are small, why give the network precious time?<\/p>\n

It may seem petty to punish the network, but I like this approach. Indeed, if Fox News is basically an ideological tabloid, along the lines of the National Enquirer, why play along and treat it as a legitimate news source? Why not punish irresponsible conduct?
\n
\nThe WaPo’s Mary Ann Akers noted the risks involved with this strategy.<\/p>\n

One source familiar with the dynamic between Fox and Obama, who asked not to be named, said Obama and his staff are in for a rude awakening if they think they can write off Fox News. If a candidate is serious about running for president, he or she is going to need a network like Fox to reach out to all those voters in the red and purple states, the source said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t think so. Fox News’ audience is basically looking for Republican talking points in video form. To be sure, it’s a large audience, which is why so many high-profile political figures, from both sides of the aisle, have been anxious to appear on the network. But to think that this is an effective way of appealing to red- and purple-state voters seems silly. Voters who are open to voting for a Democratic candidate aren’t going to rely on Fox News as a news outlet in the first place.<\/p>\n

A Fox News spokesperson told the Post that it’s in Obama’s interest to change his mind. In reference to Obama’s campaign advisor, Robert Gibbs, the FNC media flack said, “[P]erhaps Mr. Gibbs should reconsider that ill-advised strategy given his candidate is trailing by 20 points in the polls.”<\/p>\n

Who’s willing to make the argument that the most effective and efficient way for Obama to close the gap is to spend more time on Fox News?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve often thought there should be some kind of consequence for Fox News’ more ridiculous behavior. Apparently, I’m not the only one. These are chilly days on Capitol Hill … and on the campaign trail for Fox News journalists — at least when they’re anywhere near Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Sources tell The Sleuth that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}