Obama v. Fox News good political theater, but so what?

New Media editor Don Fenley casts a big net for hidden gems about and behind the news

Obama v. Fox News good political theater, but so what?

Published Friday, October 23 2009 - (0) Comments

While some are making the Obama v. Fox News brouhaha sound like the shootout at the OK Corral these type spats between the press and those in power are not exactly new.

Snarky sniping between with those with clout and the media - both news and entertainment - is common place and always has been. Hardly a week passes anywhere in the nation when a business person, mayor, school board member or a supervisor of something doesn't pick up the phone, call the newsroom and protest that they haven't been treated fairly.

Sometimes these complaints have merit. Other times, it's little more than someone who has clout and hasn't gotten their way winning about it.

In fact, it's common for a reporter or a news medium is disfavor to be shut out of the access game for a while. It happens on the local level just as much as it does nationally. It's a tactic used day-in and day-out in the push-and-shove between those who cover news and those who are in the news and what it covered their way.

Most of this behind the scenes maneuvering never get public note.

What does make this spat different is: the 24-hour news cycle; Internet mediums that have let the public join in the fray; and the red-hot confrontation between the Obama Administration and what is being dubbed the conservative echo chamber ie Fox News and conservative talk radio.

One of the more interesting local parries and trusts was Tenn. Sen. Lamar Alexander's hand wringing about shades of the Nixon Administration's enemies list. That drew a prompt rebuttal from from Democrats who saw it as Alexander's way of tiptoeing away from his reputation as a moderate Republican - aka RINO - for safer political ground within the aura of Glenn Beck.

Two of the better examinations of all the political theater comes compliments of the USA Today op-ed page column written by Sandy Grady and the Christian Science Monitor's Obama's Fox News offensive: Has it worked?

Grady writes, "our 2009 partisan jostling has a new, maybe dangerous, twist - the Frankenstein technology of cable news, the Internet, Twitter and Facebook that created a deafening 24-hour echo chamber. The rancor isn't worse, but it's far noisier."

It also reminds what is supposed to be a super-media-savvy administration to not underestimate the "Secret of the Echo Chamber: The louder the personal barbs and invective, the higher go ratings. The high-tech, smash-mouth style drifts down to congressional and town-hall copycats. So we get health care blather about death panels, government abortions, free care for illegal aliens."

History should show those who just can't resist jousting with radio talk shows host the folly of such an impossible quest. It's like Forest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does"

And least anyone forget the talk radio tactic is not new. Father Charles Coughlin was a Roman Catholic priest who pioneered the use of radio to reach a mass audience. Back in the 1930s he had an audience of more than 40 million for his weekly program, which was getting up to 80,000 fan letters a week. He reached the height of his fame by savaging Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. He later shifted gears and used his program to rationalize some of the policies of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Obviously the Obama v. Fox, Limbaugh, Beck, conservative talks radio et. brouhaha all isn't over yet. Until it is the back and forth provided by tilting at windmills is good media theater for those so inclined to choose the sizzle and dirty laundry over the other current event offerings.

Oh, there's one more local example of the popularity of the "Fair and Balanced" debate. Go no further than Sam Pratt's letter to the editor, Fox News gives viewers the fact" and the comments debate it started.

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