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Clinton - Once Again, Worse Than Obama |
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So Barack Obama went on Fox News last Sunday. It was a mistake, at least as far as the progressive movement is concerned:
Barack Obama is clearly not on board with the extremely important goal of delegitimizing Fox News in the short term and combating conservative misinformation in the media in the long term - at least not publicly. While I’m sure Obama understands the role Fox has played in fighting against progressive victories, and specifically smearing his candidacy, Obama is a politician, and he made a political choice. Facing a tight primary in Indiana, one that if he wins will likely hand him the nomination, Obama decided reaching the “moderate” voters that watch Fox News Sunday in the short term was worth legitimizing Fox in the long term.
And, lo! The interview turned out to be bullshit, full of stupid gotcha questions on unimportant topics. Who could have predicted?
Now, Hillary Clinton is going to appear on Bill O’Reilly.
Great, just great. Not that Clinton is really a stranger to Fox, but Bill O’Reilly is the worst of the worst. I can’t help but think Obama appearing on Fox News gave Clinton a push towards appearing herself.
Of course, Clinton is always a bit worse than Obama in just about everything she does, this interview most likely included. While Obama told us he planned to “take on” Fox (though he didn’t really, he just pushed back on some of the questions, but no “taking on” in any meaningful sense), Hillary has promised no such thing:
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…a senior adviser to Hillary, asked whether she’d be taking on O’Reilly in some fashion, said, on condition of anonymity:
“That’s not the plan.”
This thing just keeps getting better.
It’s pretty hard to keep making the case that Fox doesn’t deserve to be called a news source when the two top Democrats in the entire country willingly go on the channel. It was pretty slim pickings for progressives when Obama said he would “take on Fox,” but at least it was something. Clinton doesn’t even plan to do that.
It’s really a mystery why the candidates are going on Fox at all. Ostensibly, Obama (and Clinton’s) plan is to reach “moderate” voters in Indiana who watch Fox before the primary on May 6th. While I’m all for reaching out to conservatives (Obama’s thing is to talk with everyone, remember?), there are other ways of reaching these folks. You don’t have to go on Fox to reach conservatives - why don’t you try advertisements, other news channels, newspapers, mailings, or any other mass medium you can think of? While I agree with the ends (reaching out to conservatives), I don’t agree with the means (legitimizing Fox News).
Besides, it may be a truly lost cause anyway. From MoveOn:
“With no plan to call out Fox’s Republican agenda, Senator Clinton’s appearance on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ does nothing more than legitimize a network that will then use that credibility to smear Democrats and progressive ideas in 2008. She’s pandering to a small audience that is not persuadable.”
There you have it: Fox has a small audience that will never vote for a Democrat anyway. Why bother?
Who gives a flying ***k what these clowns say..like you said..they dont talk about ‘anything’ any way..id be more interested in knowing if obama had beans and wieners for dinner or steak and a baked potatoe..did it have sour cream and chives? cant wait for the canadates to do possum lodge on red and green show and give there holy views on the use of duck tape..oh wait a min. thats a canada show..well if your scrapping the bottom of the barrel..try tela mundo..sell them more nafta than they can cram between there tiny prouduce picking ears..crap id love to see them come straight out and say..im your new corp. pres.! new face but same ‘place’ for there deposits..up you ass.