Opinion
Fox News Brings Out the Knives for Obama
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
B ERNIE F OSTER
Founder/Publisher
B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER
Executive Editor
T ED B ANKS
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J ERRY F OSTER
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News Editor
H ELEN S ILVIS
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M ONICA J. F OSTER
Seattle Office Coordinator
J ULIE K EEFE
S USAN F RIED
Photographers
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Fox News, the unofficial
arm of the Republican
Party that claims to be fair
and balanced, is conduct-
ing an all-out assault on
President Obama, doing
everything from letting
Mitt Romney advisers
masquerade as objective
commentators to ignoring
facts when a high-profile
Obama critic or Fox News
commentator
make
unfounded charges.
MediaMatters.org, the
watchdog group, has cata-
logued numerous instances
of Fox’s one-sided and
unethical behavior.
“Fox News has repeated-
ly hosted advisers to
presumptive Republican
presidential nominee Mitt
Romney without disclos-
ing that they are helping
his campaign. Media Mat-
ters examined recent
appearances by advisers
John Bolton, Jay Sekulow,
and Walid Phares, who
have all appeared on Fox
News and criticized the
Obama
administration.
Bolton and Phares are Fox
News contributors, while
Sekulow is a frequent Fox
News guest,” the group
stated.
“Bolton, a Romney for-
eign policy adviser, said on
Fox News that Obama’s
foreign policy is ‘confused
and incoherent and incom-
petent’ and defended
Romney’s foreign policy
experience. Sekulow, a
Romney legal adviser, has
repeatedly appeared on
Fox to attack the Obama
administration on a variety
of
legal
issues.
And
T HE C URRY
R EPORT
George E.
Curry
Phares, a member of Rom-
ney’s foreign policy and
national security advisory
veterans, maybe not all
veterans, but this
one – and they were
saying that he was
arrogant and taking
credit, that he was
not humble and had
no humility …it’s
very boorish to take
credit away from
those brave men …
at the scene, who
did actually execute
this unbelievable
killing of Osama bin
Laden.”
Fox also allowed guests
The personal references by
Obama were taken out of
context and the president has
often given credit to field
operatives
team, has criticized the
Obama administration’s
handling of Syria and
Afghanistan on Fox.”
Greta Van Susteren, host
of “On the Record with
Greta Van Susteren,” said
on May 3: “One year after
the killing of bin Laden,
Republicans are blasting
President Obama for spik-
ing the football. And now,
a veterans group is slam-
ming the president for
taking the credit instead of
giving it to the special
forces.”
She aired part of the ad
and said, “What I take
away from that ad is that
the veterans are deeply dis-
turbed – this group of
get away with a similar
line of attack.
During the Fox News’
Special Report on May 3,
guest host John Roberts
announced that a group
called Veterans for a
Strong America
had
released an ad “accusing
President Obama of spik-
ing the football over
Osama bin Laden.” Fox
aired part of the ad that
claimed “heroes don’t
spike the football.”
Fox contributor and
Washington Post colum-
nist Charles Krauthammer
said on the program: “It
isn’t just that Obama has
managed to turn a positive,
something he did well, into
a negative by attacking,
using it as a partisan
weapon which diminishes
him, also it diminishes the
solemnity of the event,
which was a national
event, and he used it, he
appropriated it for himself.
It is the narcissism, and
that is the deeper issue
here, how they quote
Obama again and again,
using the first personal
pronoun in his announce-
ment of the event. It’s all
about me, I, commander-
in-chief, I ordered, I did
this. What about the guys
out there who did it and
who risked their lives?”
As Media Matters points
out, the personal refer-
ences by Obama were
taken out of context and
the president has often
given credit to field opera-
tives. In his May 2, 2011
announcement that Bin
Laden had been killed, the
president said, “A small
team of Americans carried
out the operation with
extraordinary courage and
capability. No Americans
were harmed. They took
care to avoid civilian casu-
alties. After a firefight,
they killed Osama bin
Laden and took custody of
his body.”
He also stated, “We give
thanks for the men who
carried out this operation,
for they exemplify the pro-
fessionalism, patriotism,
and unparalleled courage
of those who serve our
country. And they are part
of a generation that has
borne the heaviest share of
the burden since that Sep-
tember day.”
In a rare dissent from
Fox News orthodoxy, host
Megyn Kelly said in an
interview with the founder
of the veterans group, “He
[Obama] did give thanks to
the others, and of course
had to mention the first
person in discussing how
things went down.”
Neither Kelly nor any-
one else at Fox News
disclosed that Joel Arends,
whose group created the
veterans’ ad, is a longtime
Republican operative. He
worked on the presidential
campaigns of George W.
Bush and John McCain
and is chairman of the Lin-
coln
County,
S.D.
Republican Party.
Fox News was created
by Roger Ailes, a former
media adviser to Richard
Nixon and other Republi-
can figures. He supported
the 1988 scheme to link
Democratic
candidate
Michael Dukakis to Willie
Horton, a Black convicted
felon. Ailes told the New
York Times, “The only
question is whether we
depict Willie Horton with a
knife in his hand or with-
out it.”
There is no question that
Ailes’ network is using a
knife this time – to stab
Obama in the back.
George E. Curry, former
editor-in-chief of Emerge
magazine, is editor-in-
chief of the National
Newspaper
Publishers
Association News Service.
Mitt Romney Leads ‘Circle of Clowns’
in Republican Primary Stand-Up Routine
I recently saw a fascinating com-
mentary where a right-wing
pundit, while discussing the pur-
ported strengths of Mitt Romney,
indicated that Romney had no
strongly held beliefs. He went on
to say that contrary to other candi-
dates who have been described as
flip-floppers, Romney did not
change from one strong view to
another strong view. He never had
a strong view in the beginning.
My mouth dropped. I could not
believe that this right-winger was
trying to portray the fact that Mitt
Romney, the presumptive Repub-
lican nominee for president,
essentially believed in nothing
– this was a good thing. This has
turned the Republican primary
race, which had been described as
a “circle of clowns,” into a stand-
up comedy routine. Can they
possibly be serious that the candi-
dacy of someone who believes in
nothing should be supported by
the electorate?
On one level, this should not
surprise any of us. Romney has
been lusting for the nomination
and clearly has been willing to say
or do anything in order to secure
it. This has to be linked with the
manner in which both ignorance
and irrationality are being cele-
Page 4 The Portland Skanner May 9, 2012
Political leaders, particularly on
the right, will appeal to the worst
instincts within the electorate
and play on fears or prejudices in
T RANS A FRICA order to win. And if that means
shifting one’s opinions, so be it.
It just helps, I suppose, when
shifting one’s opinion is not par-
ticularly painful since one’s
original ideas were not that
important in the first place.
Bill
The November elections hold
Fletcher Jr.
many potential perils. Disap-
pointment with what Obama has
President Obama for suggesting not done; disagreement with some
that it would be great for U.S. chil- of what his administration has
dren to attend college matched done; and unease over our eco-
with continual denial of climate nomic situations, all of which
change (have you checked the could lead many voters who
brated by the Republican Party’s
staunchest supporters. Attacks on
Not only could someone as vacuous
as Romney be elected, but in some
ways more importantly, very bad and
bankrupt right-wing politicians at the
Congressional and local levels could
also win
weather recently?) all points
toward an enhanced cynicism that
has entered the electoral realm.
would otherwise vote in a liberal
or progressive direction to sit out
the election. This could mean not
only that someone as vacuous as
Romney could be elected, but in
some ways, more importantly, it
could mean that very bad and
bankrupt right-wing politicians at
the Congressional and local levels
could also win. For this reason,
while you may be tempted to
laugh at Romney and his empti-
ness, you do so at your own peril.
While I am certainly one who
has had significant disagreements
with the Obama administration,
the question I keep asking is: What
would a Romney administration
look like? I am not as comfortable
as former President Jimmy Carter
who recently suggested that he
could be content with a Romney
presidency. It seems to me that a
rich man who has no significant or
strongly held views is the equiva-
lent of a cartoon character. In this
case a cartoon character waiting
for someone from corporate
America to prepare his script. We
have too much to lose to let that
happen.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a senior
scholar with the Institute for Poli-
cy Studies, the immediate past
president of TransAfrica Forum,
and the co-author of Solidarity
Divided.