Howard Kurtz notes the White House attacks Fox controversy, which is clearly emerging as a Waterloo for the White House, or at least for Anita Dunn, the communications director who fired the shots. (How long before we start referring to this as "Dunn-gate"? Here's Kurtz:
I'm admittedly quite interested in this, not just because I cover the media but because Anita Dunn ripped Fox as a faux news organization in a CNN interview with me. You would expect -- at least, I expected -- that liberal pundits would cheer the White House for taking on the network of Beck, Hannity and O'Reilly. And some did.
But more than a few have questioned the White House strategy. Why blow off Fox's audience, which can be as high as 3 million at any given moment? Why use precious resources attacking a cable channel? It probably helps Rupert Murdoch's network, which can position itself as the only news outlet aggressively challenging the administration. The Dunn interview certainly provided plenty of fodder for Beck and O'Reilly on Monday night.
Note the key phrase, above, "More than a few have questioned the White House strategy." Indeed, one of those doing the questioning was John Nichols, writing for the lefty Nation, calls Barack Obama "Whiner-in-Chief" for its attacks on Fox. It's a long and thorough piece, which ends with this conclusion:
As for the Obama administration, whether the grumbling is about Republicans on Fox or bloggers in pajamas, there's a word for what the president and his aides are doing. That word is "whining." And nothing -- no attack by Glenn Beck, no blogger busting about Guantanamo -- does more damage to Obama's credibility or authority than the sense that a popular president is becoming the whiner-in-chief.
Whiner-in-chief. Ouch!
Fox is winning this fight. Winning it so handily, in fact, that one almost wonders if Dunn could be a mole planted by Fox. Nah, that's way too conspiratorial.
Photo illustration credit: Jim Hubbell.
