Obama's Declared War with Fox News Channel

[Anonymous]

Distastefulness has nothing to do with the quote--has to do with "Chairman Mao, one of my two favorite political philosophers" prelude. C'mon-you know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Nobody has pointed out the irony yet of the fact that Bill O'reilly is defending Anita Dunn, on this note, to the hilt. I guess he is beyond any sort of positive word on this forum.

Nope. I've said several times on here that I am a huge Bill O fan. I am very much a democrat and voted for Obama, but I don't like to miss The Factor. I don't remember reading anything bad about him on here. Now Hannity, Beck, and Limbaugh are a different story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The "War on Fox" is starting to bum me out; reminds me of Hugo Chavez. Maybe not the extreme, but the shutting out is silencing. What is he scared of? Please. Shutting out media from the pool etc. is not a good road to go down.

Ha, ha! This is hilarious! Chavez shuts down a whole tv station while Obama is reluctant to talk to one, which continues to say whatever it wants about the president. Wow, you must have gotten at least 200 points on the logic portion of the SATs! Bizarre.

you're right; I did not score highly on logic - boo hoo. I'm glad for you if solving riddles about the order of people wearing various colored hats is your thing. I did score higly enough on verbal though to know that the great lesson of the twentieth century might be that sometimes erosion of freedom starts so low key that if you blink you miss it... Ala animal farm. Chavez has been systematically casting as 'propaganda' all media that disagree with....Chavez of course. I don't think this war on a major media station is becoming to an American president. Nowhere has it been shown that fox's news broadcasting is so unfair or slanderous that the white house is justified in keeping them out. I don't think the white house is obligated to appear on the opinion shows, but to bar the regular news arm is lame and somewhat tawdry.

This is a legitimate point to make. I don't know enough to know whether the facts support it or not but I agree it requires serious investigation. The allusion to Chavez -- and now Animal Farm (!) -- is lazy, inaccurate, and self-indulgent. You'll do better at convincing me if you stick with the legitimate point.

[Anonymous]

The fact that the president is arousing these parallels in my mind through his actions does not have to convince you. Cassandra did not convince any Trojans. I am not saying he is Chavez or Animal Farm; I am saying even a taste of those is unbecoming to me, in an American presidency. I think this White House could/should do better than putting Fox straight reporters in their line of fire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact that the president is arousing these parallels in my mind through his actions does not have to convince you. Cassandra did not convince any Trojans. I am not saying he is Chavez or Animal Farm; I am saying even a taste of those is unbecoming to me, in an American presidency. I think this White House could/should do better than putting Fox straight reporters in their line of fire.

Oh, now you're Cassandra???!!! And we're all Trojans???!! Wow, you have quite an ego.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that the president is arousing these parallels in my mind through his actions does not have to convince you. Cassandra did not convince any Trojans. I am not saying he is Chavez or Animal Farm; I am saying even a taste of those is unbecoming to me, in an American presidency. I think this White House could/should do better than putting Fox straight reporters in their line of fire.

Oh, now you're Cassandra???!!! And we're all Trojans???!! Wow, you have quite an ego.

Agreed. Somebody can't let go of English Lit class. Nice try with the Cassandra thing -- our disbelief is demonstration of your rightness. Of course the reason Cassandra was never believed is that she was cursed. In your case, the cause might be more ordinary - I mean "pedestrian".

Ok, I'm off to work on my translation of Beowulf.

[Anonymous]

This from Lanny Davis:

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/26/davis-white-house-vs-fox-make-sense/?feat=home_headlines

I particularly liked the Tevye comparison; he is one of my all time favorite movie characters.

[Anonymous]

This was an interesting discussion in the New Yorker:

It’s hard to kill the press, but it is not hard to chill it, and this appears to be the White House’s goal in the case of Fox. “The best analogy is probably baseball,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said—meaning that throwing a few inside fastballs, a little chin music, gets hitters to back off the plate. Maybe, but he should also remember that deliberately throwing at a batter is grounds for ejection.

I would add that the baseball analogy only works if that inside fast ball has the potential to really hurt you. I would argue in the case of Fox News v. Obama Administration that Fox News doesn't really suffer harm, in fact quite the opposite. When the govt. tries to shut you up or marginalize you, many people tune in to see whats up.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/11/02/091102taco_talk_menand

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that the president is arousing these parallels in my mind through his actions does not have to convince you. Cassandra did not convince any Trojans. I am not saying he is Chavez or Animal Farm; I am saying even a taste of those is unbecoming to me, in an American presidency. I think this White House could/should do better than putting Fox straight reporters in their line of fire.

Oh, now you're Cassandra???!!! And we're all Trojans???!! Wow, you have quite an ego.

And you seem to lack for cogent responses beyond poking fun at mine. Have on! Fiddle while Rome burns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that the president is arousing these parallels in my mind through his actions does not have to convince you. Cassandra did not convince any Trojans. I am not saying he is Chavez or Animal Farm; I am saying even a taste of those is unbecoming to me, in an American presidency. I think this White House could/should do better than putting Fox straight reporters in their line of fire.

Oh, now you're Cassandra???!!! And we're all Trojans???!! Wow, you have quite an ego.

And you seem to lack for cogent responses beyond poking fun at mine. Have on! Fiddle while Rome burns.

Not the PP here, but that's silly. The PP gave you a quite reasonable response three days ago as to why the Chavez analogy was poor. Rather than address the comparison directly, you then doubled down with an outrageous analogy to Animal Farm (sorry, this is not Old Major and the Seven Commandments, no matter how you spin it). Seriously, Animal Farm is fundamentally about totalitarianism; it is not the justification for any slippery slope argument of your choosing.

And THEN instead of defending your analogies, you throw out yet another one, Cassandra, in which we must accept the premise that you are an oracle, and due to a curse we are doomed to be ignorant. Is that an argument at all? I can call myself Jesus, but that doesn't make it so.

Cogence requires you to address the substance of the disagreement, not merely throw off literary references like a plane throws off chaff (an analogy I will defend). Cogent is not your strong suit. Pompous is your home field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that the president is arousing these parallels in my mind through his actions does not have to convince you. Cassandra did not convince any Trojans. I am not saying he is Chavez or Animal Farm; I am saying even a taste of those is unbecoming to me, in an American presidency. I think this White House could/should do better than putting Fox straight reporters in their line of fire.

Oh, now you're Cassandra???!!! And we're all Trojans???!! Wow, you have quite an ego.

And you seem to lack for cogent responses beyond poking fun at mine. Have on! Fiddle while Rome burns.

Not the PP here, but that's silly. The PP gave you a quite reasonable response three days ago as to why the Chavez analogy was poor. Rather than address the comparison directly, you then doubled down with an outrageous analogy to Animal Farm (sorry, this is not Old Major and the Seven Commandments, no matter how you spin it). Seriously, Animal Farm is fundamentally about totalitarianism; it is not the justification for any slippery slope argument of your choosing.

And THEN instead of defending your analogies, you throw out yet another one, Cassandra, in which we must accept the premise that you are an oracle, and due to a curse we are doomed to be ignorant. Is that an argument at all? I can call myself Jesus, but that doesn't make it so.

Cogence requires you to address the substance of the disagreement, not merely throw off literary references like a plane throws off chaff (an analogy I will defend). Cogent is not your strong suit. Pompous is your home field.

Oh snap, 20:50, I am in awe of you. Thanks for a stunning articulate defense!

[Anonymous]

Oh snap. You are spending way too much time on me. Seems like you have a lot of time to spend on the silly things, like the politician you defend. Hope he cranks out a defense policy one of these days instead of...charging at windmills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh snap. You are spending way too much time on me. Seems like you have a lot of time to spend on the silly things, like the politician you defend. Hope he cranks out a defense policy one of these days instead of...charging at windmills.

Don Quixote!

Wow, that's quite a bizarre defense. If you are countering my every argument, then you must be a frivolous person! That's breathtakingly twisted!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh snap. You are spending way too much time on me. Seems like you have a lot of time to spend on the silly things, like the politician you defend. Hope he cranks out a defense policy one of these days instead of...charging at windmills.

Oh, I see. Ad hominem attacks are the new cogent. Plus you get an extra gold star on your progress chart at the library. 30 more books and you will get a ribbon.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and BTW. I'm not spending any time defending Obama. I just ran into this thread and you seem like a windbag that needs deflating.