The Fox News war: What's the upside for Obama?

The anti-Fox campaign

The administration’s anti-Fox drumbeat has been building for weeks.

On Sept. 20, President Obama appeared on all the major Sunday morning news programs except Fox News. Last week, White House communications director Anita Dunn asserted that “Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party.”

But perhaps the starkest moment came last Sunday, when Obama’s top two political aides unleashed attacks.

Fox News “is not really news,” said David Axelrod on ABC. “It’s pushing a point of view.”

Rahm Emanuel told CNN that Obama considers Fox News “not a news organization so much as it has a perspective.”

When reporters pressed White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later for specifics, he mentioned Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity – two personalities known for their fiery rhetoric (as distinct from briefing room regulars like Major Garrett and Wendell Goler).

Fox’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, says ratings have gone up since the Obama “campaign” began. Obama himself has not engaged in the discussion, but when asked about it on Wednesday in an interview with NBC, he said, “it’s not something I’m losing a lot of sleep over.”

“I think the American people are a lot more interested in what we’re doing to create jobs or how we’re handling the situation in Afghanistan,” Obama said.

Democrats cheer

Some Democratic media strategists say the White House is right to go after Fox – particularly the more incendiary personalities like Mr. Beck.

“I just find the antics of my buddy Glenn Beck absolutely out of control, and I think the problem now is that the rhetoric has been ratcheted up so high,” says Peter Fenn, president of Fenn Communications Group. “To capture an audience, they have to be more shrill and outrageous than the last time they were on.”

Fenn says he also wishes Keith Olbermann, a liberal talk show host on MSNBC prone to over-the-top rhetoric, would dial it back. “I wish he’d stop doing ‘The Worst Person in the World,’” says Fenn.

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Has Obama's Fox News offensive worked?

Media analysts differ on whether the network has changed its behavior at all.

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