Petty

June 22nd, 2009

Here’s an exchange from the right-wing echo chamber, between Greta van Susteren and Karl Rove, as an example of what sheer levels of hypocritical revisionism and, yes, pettiness they stoop to naturally:

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Karl, I have to confess that from time to time, I hold a grudge. I got to confess to that. Now let me ask you about President Obama. I don’t know if you’ve been following this, but he will not come to FOX News Channel, and he took a little swipe at us the other day, and we’ve sort of teased him back. But this whole idea that — that, you know, the largest audience is on cable — of all the cable news is on FOX News Channel — what do you make of this little spat he has with us?

ROVE: I think it’s petty stubbornness. I mean, here’s a man who seems to be willing to go sit down with Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il, but he won’t sit down with Greta or O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. I mean, it strikes that this guy might be a little fearful of — of having tough questions asked of him.

You know what? Hillary Clinton had the same attitude until the primary, when she came on FOX, found she was treated fairly. And I can’t tell you how after that, how many people came up to me with my travels around the country and said, I’m a Hillary Clinton fan, and I appreciate what FOX did in giving her a fair shot and a fair venue on television.

The President of United States should not be afraid of coming on FOX News, nor should the President of the United States diminish his office by seeming to engage in a petty fight with the — with the — with a network himself.

I know that they have to maintain the ridiculous fiction that Fox is not the propaganda arm of the Republican Party, and as such, Obama would be opening himself to brazen attack every time he let Fox get a shot at him. But the sheer gall of hypocrisy and revisionism they exhibit here is pretty over-the-edge here.

First, we have Susteren claiming that “Obama” has a “little spat” with Fox. Hoo boy. Let’s see, Fox, for the past year or more, has savaged Obama like no one else, calling him such vile names as one could not previously imagine a news network calling a president before, making accusation after bald, unfounded, hysterical accusation. Communist, Socialist, Nazi, attacking America, destroying America… the drumbeat of smear, attack, and rage-filled hysterical rant has been constant for quite some time now. But Obama takes a little jab at Fox at a correspondent’s dinner where jabs are the main course, and suddenly he’s “petty”?

Next, Rove claims he “won’t sit down” with people like Sean Hannity. Aside from the fact that Hannity is one of the most rabid anti-Obama nutballs out there, Obama has sat down with Fox News and with people like Hannity–he went on Fox News and allowed Bill O’Reilly to have a clear shot at him. And O’Reilly did, treating Obama like a hostile witness in a trial, shouting at him with such antagonism and disrespect as to make it impossible to believe that a president would ever subject himself to that again. When did anybody treat Bush like this?

So, Obama has the stones to come on O’Reilly and hold his own–tell me, did Rove ever send Bush to be a guest on Olbermann?–and then whines that Obama never sits down with Fox News personalities because he’s “afraid” and “fearful” of “tough questions.” What utter stupidity and lies.

Then Rove claims that Obama will, of course be treated “fairly.” Like this, I suppose:

I know that I’m hardly revealing anything new or surprising here–Fox is, always has been, and always will be a festering cesspool of wingnut blathering and smears. But it never hurts to speak truth about these people a bit more often in the hopes that more people will realize the toxic effect these bottom-feeders have on the American political scene.

Categories: "Liberal" Media, Right-Wing Hypocrisy Tags: by
Comments are closed.