Was it stupid, cunning, bold, silly or an abomination for the White House to publicly take on Fox "news?"
This is one of those times when it’s perplexing to be a progressive. When the good guys (our president, not like the previous resident) takes on the bad guys (the conservative, lying bull-horn of Fox "news") it is tempting to just say, “Yeah! It’s about time we put them in their place.”
The problem is that I do not want the president himself spending one second of the precious little time he has in his day on these hate mongers. The obvious reason is that the administration just added a whole lotta fuel to the fire.
The bigger reason is that it is not worth the time.
Now if the President himself did not actually exert any energy at all on this except to possibly use 20 seconds or less to review the situation and approve it, then I guess I don’t have a problem with this. If his staff fit this into their schedule (still rather them spend time on something that actually helps the common person) then it does not bother me as much.
Regarding any questions of censorship, that’s a load of crap and any journalist who has worked with powerful figures knows it. No one is required to make themselves available to the press (exceptions to people who work for some organization that has this rule, such as professional athletes.) Though the balance between politicians and the press is delicate, if the politician decides not to give an interview, it’s not censorship—it’s the nature of the game.
