The White House Takes On FOX News

It's one thing for someone like Keith Olbermann or bloggers like myself describe FOX News as the mouthpiece for the GOP. It's entirely something else when the White House does it.

The White House's communications director says that Fox News is little more than a wing of the Republican Party.

"The reality of it is that Fox News often operates as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party," Anita Dunn told CNN's Howard Kurtz on Sunday. "And it’s not ideological. I mean, obviously there are many commentators who are conservative, liberal, centrist, and everybody understands that. What I think is fair to say about Fox is — and certainly the way we view it — is that it really is more of a wing of the Republican Party."

Dunn was responding to Kurtz's question about her appearance in a Time magazine article, published Thursday, in which she described Fox News as "opinion journalism masquerading as news."

"They are boosting their audience," Time quoted her as saying. "But that doesn't mean we are going to sit back."

I don't think anyone's actually disputing this, certainly not FOX News viewers. But when the White House communications director says "You don't even qualify as a news network to us" then something fundamental has changed in the dynamic.

"They’re widely viewed as, you know, a part of the Republican Party," Dunn said on Kurtz's Reliable Sources. "They take their talking points, put them on the air, take their opposition research, put them on the air, and that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news network they way CNN is."

Ouch.

Then again, FOX doesn't seem to think Obama is really the President, either. So I guess that's fair and balanced. Dissent is one thing. Spreading outright lies in another. FOX News and their supporters seem to think by calling lies "dissent" that they have the moral high ground here. The White House is calling them out on it, and it's about time.

After all, Clinton knuckled under to folks like this and his party fell apart, he got impeached for his troubles, and the Republicans nearly destroyed the country when they got into power. It took us 16 years to get rid of them and only because they failed so utterly that even FOX News couldn't cover their asses.

Dissent really is patriotic. I do not agree with many of Obama's policies, particularly on civil liberties and Afghanistan and Iraq. But I'm not trying to convince America that he's a Kenyan usurper, either. There is a difference, and FOX has crossed that line one time too many.