MoveOn Hammers Obama For Fox News Appearance
Adam Green, a spokesperson for MoveOn, a major Obama supporter, has just hit the Illinois Senator hard for his Fox appearance in a piece for The Huffington Post:
It was a mistake for Obama to go on FOX's Sunday show and treat the experience as if it was a real news interview. Democratic politicians need to understand that FOX is a Republican mouthpiece masquerading as a news outlet. When dealing with FOX, you either burn them or they will burn you...FOX's power lies not in its audience size -- which is puny and consists mostly of unpersuadable voters. Instead, FOX's power comes from tricking politicians and real journalists into treating their "breaking stories" like real news, thereby propelling smears like the Swift Boats and Rev. Wright into the mainstream political dialogue. That's why progressives fought (successfully) last year to deprive FOX of the legitimacy that comes with hosting a Democratic presidential debate. And that's why Democratic politicians should never treat FOX like a real news outlet -- including FOX's Sunday show.
The MoveOn spokesperson also points to the Obama senior adviser's suggestion to this site that Obama was going on to "take Fox on":
Barack Obama's campaign made a promise before this weekend's appearance. They said he would "take Fox on" -- inspiring hope among those who watched Bill Clinton in 2006, Chris Dodd in 2007, and progressive activist Lee Camp in 2008 delegitimize FOX on the air. But Obama didn't do that, and he suffered as a result.
Hard to miss the mention of Bill's now-infamous episode, in which he took on the very same Fox anchor -- Chris Wallace -- that Obama was interviewed by yesterday.
Green just confirmed to me that this is MoveOn's official statement on this matter. The rest here.
Late Update: Markos agrees.
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