Is Obama the New Nixon?

If you're the POTUS and you have two wars on your hands, one going worse than the day you took office; if your economic policies are failing by every objective measure; if unemployment is approaching 14% in some states; if small businesses are closing in record numbers; if the dollar is weakening while energy prices are on the rise; if you are awarded a Nobel Peace prize for doing nothing; if independents are fleeing you in droves and your poll numbers are shrinking; if you have failed to live up to even one of your campaign promises, then you might be tempted to solve the problems you can't solve by silencing your critics. So until we get a "Fairness Doctrine", Obama's thugs are on the job. Barack the Magnificent may not be adding any troops to Afghanistan, but the commander-in-chicanery has deployed the heavy hitters to kill the messenger - Fox News.

On Sunday, David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel hit the talk show circuit to make the claim that Fox News isn't a "legitimate" news organization. That's right. The founder of a PR firm famous for astroturfing (or fake grassroots campaigns) and the Democrats' most partisan attack dog (who is nicknamed "Rahmbo") went out to lecture news organizations on what real news was supposed to look like. This is akin to the "balloon boy's" family lecturing the PTA on proper parenting or Wolf Blitzer giving Alex Trebek pointers on Jeopardy! It's like if the cast of MTV's Real World taught classes on how to actually live in the real world.

The New York Times, liberal paper of record, issues a retraction almost every week, often after running front page stories with false information. Last year, they falsely reported that GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin belonged to an Alaskan political party that advocated secession from the union. Earlier this summer, they ran images supposedly capturing the housing bust that were clearly doctored and manipulated. And of course, just last month they apologized for failing to write one word about the ACORN scandals until Congress took action against the organization. I have yet to hear anyone call them out as illegitimate.

The New York Times is hardly alone. We all remember Dan Rather's phony report on CBS in 2004 in which he presented forged National Guard documents questioning George W. Bush's service. The failure to authenticate the memos ended up costing Rather and his producer their jobs. Certain anchors on NBC have responded to Obama with all the objectivity of a chill up their leg. And just last week, CNN (among others) had to retract stories in which they attributed fake racist quotes to Rush Limbaugh in an effort to smear his bid for an NFL franchise. I could go on, but you get the idea.

Given these facts and given the number of pundits from both sides of the aisle willing to appear on Fox, it would seem that Fox News is a more legitimate news organization than the very ones which Axelrod and Emanuel chose to appear. That's not surprising, because we all know that Obama and company don't really want fair news coverage. They want a media that they can cajole into mimicking their talking points and intimidate into ignoring stories that might be negative to the White House - a la Van Jones and ACORN.

Greta Van Susteren has been one of the fairer interviewers in all of cable news for the past couple of years, but don't take my word for it. Hillary Clinton said the same thing. On last night's show (yes, on Fox) Greta questioned Senator Lamar Alexander (who worked with Nixon) and Susan Estrich (liberal Democrat and former Dukakis campaign manager) about the White House's sudden desire to go to war with the free press. The Alexander interview is first, followed by Susan, who makes some of the best points of the evening. Why aren't other news organizations standing up for Fox in the name of free speech? Are they willing to take marching orders from the president about which stories they should cover? If so, what does that say about our ability to shed light on the truth and to make our government transparent?

Someone cue Frost/Nixon and tell Opie that he made his film a year too soon. Now we can finally start to compare our current president's tactics with those of the other commander-in-chicanery.

Krauthammer Goes Off on Fox's Critics

Sometimes someone else says it better than you can. This from Charles Krauthammer on last night's All Stars:

Look, the great sin of Fox News is it broke the monopoly of the liberal media.

That's the reason why it is so wildly successful. I once said years ago that the genius of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch is to have discovered a niche audience of American broadcast news, namely, half of the American people.

And the other consequence is that it angers the Obama administration, which is used to, particularly after last year, wall-to-wall adulation.

I mean, this is almost comical if you look at the lineup. On the one hand, in the tank are NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, PBS, CNN and MSNBC. Some of these like MSNBC are so in the tank they need scuba gear. Some of them occasionally emerge for a breath of air, but only occasionally. And Fox stands up and refuses to bend a knee, and that's what they can't stand.

Look, CNN was patted on the head by the Obama administration as objective. CNN is an organization that a few weeks ago had a fact-checking on a "Saturday Night Live" skit that was mildly critical of Obama, but did no fact checking on wildly, grotesquely, libelous racist statements allegedly made by Rush Limbaugh which were not made by Rush Limbaugh.

…That's not a matter of sloppiness. That's a matter of ideology.

Very funny, Charles, and on point. I'm taking notes. Always learn from the masters.

Rush and the Left: E Pluribus Unum

Last week a megalomaniac in Colorado launched a balloon and called 911, claiming his six year old son had climbed inside. We all know now it was a hoax, and the media helped sensationalize it every step of the way. But that was hardly the biggest hoax that the media perpetuated last week. In fact, it was nothing compared to the fraudulent charges that so-called news organizations launched against talk show host Rush Limbaugh for simply seeking to buy an NFL franchise.

Rush Limbaugh, of course, is not the most popular person in the world. The way he presents the conservative case, though usually accurate and always entertaining, can be abrasive and off-putting to some, even conservatives on occasion. But you don't have to agree with Rush to come to his defense when the media attacks his character based on unsubstantiated allegations and false charges. That's what occurred last week when CNN, MSNDNC, and dozens of pundits started making up racist quotes that Rush Limbaugh never uttered.

Think about that. The media took on a mob mentality, making up facts to stop an American citizen from completing a private transaction in the free market. That's the stuff of authoritarian regimes and Pravda. It's banana republic in nature, showing a complete disregard for truth, justice, and reason. It's the exact type of abhorrent behavior that the Left accused the Bush administration of despite the facts in the Valerie Plame case. Now we see that the Left was merely projecting how they would use their own power.

Rush has been on the air for 15 hours a week, almost every week, for the last twenty years. In the age of YouTube, with all that audiotape, they couldn't find any evidence of incendiary, racist remarks to back up their claim that Rush was a bigot. So they made them up. Or they took quotes out of context where Rush was clearly being sarcastic. In one case he was quoting a liberal columnist.

But perhaps the worst part of all this is that no one in the media has expressed shame over their coverage. Even the retractions and apologies have been snarky. They may have missed the exact quote or even made it up, but still in their minds that doesn't prove that Rush isn't racist. In today's poor state of journalism, if the truth doesn't back up their agenda, the truth falls by the wayside.

These are dark days for America, brought to you by the most intolerant people our nation has produced - progressive Democrats. I don't think I'm understating that fact. I have never seen an angrier, more cowardly bunch than the progressive thought police. They undermine our freedom to act as individuals every step of the way, attacking not our ideas, but the very essence of our being. Disagree with their limited world view and you will be demonized, often labeled a racist, divisive, or an ignorant bigot.

The Left orchestrated a smear campaign against Rush, because they disagreed with him. Rather than debate his views point for point, they attacked him personally. They actively set out to destroy his pursuits outside of politics, to ruin him for his audacity to speak his mind. If it can happen to Rush, it can happen to anyone who finds themselves speaking truth to power. The Left's goal is to intimidate all conservatives into silence, not to debate but to suppress debate.

This runs completely contrary to the founding of this nation, but that's no surprise given the Left's hostility to America's founding principles. These people would shred the Constitution tomorrow if they could get away with it, because it's the only thing that prevents them from establishing a government that controls which rights are granted to the people, as opposed to a state where people grant power to the government.

If there's a phrase that best describes the democratic foundation of our country, it's "E Pluribus Unum," a latin inscription that means "Out of many, one." It's been a part of our national fabric since the founding, a motto that appears on the official seal of the United States as well as all of our coins.

Out of many, one. We are one nation made up of many ideas, many backgrounds, many religions, and many political persuasions. We don't agree on everything, but we elect a government that represents all of us, takes all differing opinions into account. We don't demonize those that disagree with us. We don't try to punish those that don't share our views. We take our debate to the open floor. We honor the traditions of this country and we make adjustments slowly after lengthy debate. America is a marketplace of ideas, and may the best ideas win.

E Pluribus Unum. This ideal is why we have succeeded like no other nation before us. It is the call to accept others, to work with others, to value individuals for their contributions to society rather than walk over individuals for fear their contributions may run counter to society.

Unfortunately, the Far Left in this country, the Obama administration, and to some extent the Democratic Party in general, no longer holds this to be true. We are supposed to be of one single mindset - to support the president as he passes his progressive agenda. Dissent and risk being called out as racist, homophobic, a hate monger, un-American, or standing in the way of progress. You will be vilified. Your motives will be questioned. For a political ideology so focused on diversity, progressives sure seem to have a problem with diverse points of view.

You might say the Democratic Party believes the motto reads backwards, "Out of one, many." They believe we are one collective, where the rights of the individual are infringed upon in the name of "the greater good." To defend the rights of many individuals is to break from the necessary conformity the Left desires to attain their collective Utopian vision. When the Left refers to the many, they refer only to the cosmetic ethnic makeup of the country. They don't wish to celebrate America as a whole. Instead they divide it up so that there's a celebration for black America, a celebration for gay America, a celebration for Islam or Jewish America. They fragment us and pit us against each other, try to make us envy one another, in the hopes we'll be too distracted to notice the loss of our liberties, negotiated behind closed doors.

So the Left pits minorities against Rush Limbaugh, organized by race-baiters like Al Sharpton. The Left pits a Van Jones or Anita Dunn against Glenn Beck. The leftist administration pits the media that they can influence, the media in line to receive huge amounts of money from the government (like General Electric, owner of NBC) against the independent-minded Fox News. They pit unions against tea party protesters. All of it is orchestrated from the highest levels of the left wing machine, whether it's Rahm Emanuel, the Center for American Progress, or MoveOn.org. If you don't believe me, just take a look at this video where Juan Williams, a liberal Democrat, starts to wake up to the truth behind the politics of personal destruction as left wing attack dogs try to paint him as "a house n**ger." Remind me again why conservatives are considered the divisive ones.

First they came for the banks. Then they came for the insurance companies. Then they came for Rush and Glenn Beck and Fox News. How long do you want to wait to stand up before they come after you?