Obama Administration openly orchestrates political attacks against its media critics

The White House Takes a Chokehold on the Media

By Daniel Greenfield
Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Even as the White House preaches tolerance toward Muslims and Sikhs, it is practicing intolerance, signaling that anyone who challenges the leaders of an embattled America is cynical, political and—isn’t this the subtext?—unpatriotic… We should dread a climate where the jobs of columnists and comedians are endangered by dissent.—Maureen Dowd, New York Times, September 30, 2001

That was 2001, the Republicans were in the White House and liberals were busy lecturing us on the dangers of a climate where dissent is considered unpatriotic. Now it’s 2009 and the liberals hold Congress and the White House and are busy creating a climate where dissent is un-American and the subtext is… criminal.

Where the worst that people like Maureen Dowd or Jacob Weisberg could dig up as examples of the Bush Administration creating a climate of intimidation was an offhand comment about Bill Maher praising the courage of the 9/11 terrorists or putting a positive spin on news from Iraq—those days are now long behind us. If post 9/11, a few columnists faced public outrage for their comments, today the Obama Administration openly orchestrates political attacks against its media critics.

Whether it’s FOX News or Rush Limbaugh or CNBC—the Obama Administration has openly and shamelessly targeted dissenting media figures. And even told the press how they were going to do it. And naturally the same defenders of the press who furrowed their brows when Ari Fleischer suggested that maybe an obnoxious comedian should think twice before calling the 9/11 terrorists courageous and the US Air Force cowardly… are cheering the media crackdown on.
Message to a cooperative state run media that FOX News was to be sidelined

Obama’s top people did their tour of the Sunday Morning talk shows to spread the message to a cooperative state run media that FOX News was to be sidelined. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, “it’s important not to have the CNN’s and the others of the world being led and following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization.â€