Every relationship — personal, professional or otherwise — should have tension.
The relationship between the press and the Obama Administration should be no different.
In recent weeks, we have seen the tension rise between the White House and some members of the media, primarily those employed by the Fox News Channel. But according to the article “This Obama-Fox War Ain’t Nothin’” by Jack Shafer in Slate, Barack Obama is not the first president to directly attack members of the media.
Shafer draws the conclusion that the fight between Obama and Fox news “would barely count as basketball-court trash talk, let alone words of war.” He suggests that if we want to see a real battle between a president and the media, we will have to hop in our DeLorean and set the date sometime between 1932 and 1939.
The war between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the media was not only more intense, but far more serious, Shafer claims.
Fox News was singled out by the Obama Administration because, according to David Axelrod, “they’re not really a news station.” It pales in comparison to what FDR and his administration dealt with.
Shafer cites an incident where FDR’s Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes debated Frank Gannett, founder of Gannett Media, in front of an audience of 2,000. Sec. Ickes believed the press was being controlled by its advertisers while Gannett claimed the FDR Administration was attempting to “censor or prosecute newspapers that resisted the administration.”
Fox News, like Gannett, claimed that the president is not only trying to discredit the media but also attempting to legislate himself a dictatorship.
Interaction between the media and the Obama Administration is healthy; there should be an intuitive discourse about the issues at hand. But it is futile to single out one news network as the “bad guy.” President Obama should take a look at FDR’s struggle with the media.
He should also heed the debate between Gannett and Sec. Ickes and create an open discussion by encouraging general debate about the issues. During his campaign for president last year, Obama said he wanted to be held accountable for the decisions he makes while in office. Fox News commentators are doing just that — dissenting against what they believe is wrong.
How many times have we heard Keith Olbermann make outrageous claims about George W. Bush? Too many to count.
But this is the right of news commentators. And though I don’t agree with most of the things that Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly say, it is their right to say it.
It is up to us, the American people, to decide what is actually news and what is news commentary.
E-mail the author: 
Michael L. Hoffman
(Powered by 
What makes Fox News so brilliant in what they do is they’ve blurred the line between hard “news” and commentart/editorial that a large majority of viewers can’t even tell when they’re being exposed to one or the other.
It does a sensational job in helping both the Republicans and the members of their base in shaping and driving the discussion on things such as health care, the economy, etc. in the way they have, to the loss of the American people and in getting anywhere close to actual solutions coming to fruition.
What they also do, unfortunately, is ruin credible journalism and the field you and I are in, Mr. Hoffman, even further. Personally, I like the Olbermann/Maddow/Ed Shultz MSNBC counter to them, but it’s hardly more than a “Fox News-lite” and makes for more of a ratings war and provides entertainment rather than providing anythign close to top-notch journalism.
What I’ve always hated most about Fox News outside of my hate of their ideology, which I’ve made quite clear on posts here before, is their complete failure in doing one of the most basic things that media outlets should strive for. And that is providing viable, timely, accurate information to the market they serve to make for an informed, intelligent and educated population.
And they fail on this in an incredible way by the shabby infotainment and editorializing they do 24/7 masquerading as journalism. Many are probably aware of the 2003 survey where it showed Fox News was far and away the worst offender of the TV networks in providing complete lies about Iraq and world opinion, with about 80 percent of their viewers being less informed the more Fox News they watched.
When you observe the typical Fox News viewer’s beliefs on things such as health care, the economy, taxes, all the lies such as Obama being a Muslim, etc., you can see that the network constantly fails its audience and one of the basic goals of a credible media organization.
Their failure in being a positive and informative organization is even more glaring than their blatant partisanship on the airwaves. That’s the even bigger shame.
I think the credibility of journalism is being destroyed by those who WONT fact check news (see Rush Limbaugh quotes), who spend time fact-checking comedy skits, who prominently identify Republicans in news stories about scandal but dont identify the party when its a democrat, who fawn over Predient Obama but who continue to pound private citizen Sarah Palin. The same arguments can be made about CNN and MSNBC wrt blurring lines between news and commentary.
Yawn Nick smith you watch Olbermann, which is the eq of Hannity, a man that wouldn’t know journalism if it hit him in his feminine glasses. Your the same as fox news watchers but on the other side, nothing more. Guess the Military Ind Complex has got you real good… must not have really pened your mind up enough in your academic career.