I have been writing for several months about how thin skinned the White House has been about press criticism -- especially when it comes to the Fox News Channel. I have compared the current administration to the White House of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, and believe me, I did not do that lightly. Nixon-Agnew was a very dark time for the First Amendment.
I have argued that whether or not you like Fox News, all of us in the press need to be concerned about the administration of President Barack Obama trying to "punish" the cable news channel for its point of view.
Yesterday, Howard Kurtz had Anita Dunn, the point person for the White House war on those who would dare to criticize it, on his CNN media show "Reliable Sources." Take a look for yourself, and you tell me if this is an administration that respects press freedom.
By the way, Dunn is absolutely wrong about Fox's coverage of the election last fall. I did watch it every day and wrote about it several times a week for this blog. And while I didn't like a lot of what I saw with soft interviews and only favorable coverage of Sarah Palin, it wasn't all about Bill Ayers and ACORN by a long shot. In fact, I saw Shepherd Smith take down Joe the Plumber after that GOP-created character came on Fox and said, "A vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel." I wonder if Smith was acting as an "arm" of the Republican Party on that one. I have to say I was surprised to hear a senior White House staffer sounding so uninformed and blatantly biased. This campaign by the Obama administration is dangerous to press freedom, and it should concern everyone in the press, not just Fox. If you want to get a sense of how little regard Team Obama has for the press in general, check out this "Time" magazine article. You have to wonder who else is on this administration's enemies list. Disclosure: I was a guest on "Reliable Sources" Sunday, but not during this segment.
