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Name:
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lotowner
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Subject:
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Free Speeech
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Date:
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10/24/2009 7:35:06 AM
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EDITORIAL Free speech for all — except White House
The White House has decided to stay away from Fox News Network. President Barack Obama and others believe the television station is a proxy for the Republican Party and misleads the public about administration policies. Fox News personalities and many viewers say Rupert Murdoch’s network is the only outlet willing to criticize the administration.
So far, so good.
Fox has a right to broadcast its views and built a loyal audience by doing that. The Obama administration has a right to decline to appear in person on the network whose producers have been filmed “cheerleading” at anti-Obama events.
Now, however, Fox employees — including Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Cal Thomas and Chris Wallace — characterize the snub as a violation of the First Amendment right of free speech. They have compared it to Hugo Chavez taking over the press in Venezuela or Fidel Castro’s media control in Cuba.
That is a mischaracterization.
Just as Fox has the right to be a cheerleader for the GOP, the Obama administration has the right to decline to appear in person on Fox, even to criticize the network, just as Fox criticizes the White House.
The mischaracterization by Beck, O’Reilly, Thomas, Wallace and other Fox News talking heads is precisely the kind of “spin” that prompted the White House snub in the first place.
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