I’ve had to change my description for the Fox News network. When Dubya was still in office I called it the White House Press Corps. Now I call it the Bitter Old White Guys Network. They claim to be “the most fair and balanced” news network on TV, but if they were any more red they’d be broadcasting from the Forbidden City. They supported Dubya when even Laura and the dog were looking toward the door, but when their golden boy screwed things up so badly that America elected (gasp!) a black man—and with a Muslim name, no less—well, they still haven’t gotten over it.
On Election night last November I was flipping primarily between CNN and Fox to see if one would call the election any earlier than the other. As it became more and more evident that Obama would win the election, the mood was decidedly different from one network to the other.
At CNN, Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer were clearly excited at the historical significance of the moment at hand. Barack Obama, a charismatic young African-American man, had just been elected President of the United States of America!
Over at Fox, on the other hand, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly could scarcely bring themselves to look at the camera. In fact, when the election was finally called for Obama, Fox opted for a wide shot of the newsroom with a voice-over announcement. I guess no one wanted to be the first to utter the unthinkable onscreen. The tone was somber: “Barack Obama has won the election.”
They might as well have been announcing Ronald Reagan’s death.
Two months later Obama rode into Washington on a wave of popularity. His message of hope and idealism were contagious. Even some of his detractors were willing to give him a chance. But the honeymoon was short-lived.
Seven months into his presidency he’s losing ground in the polls. How could it be otherwise? With wars raging on two fronts and the economy in the toilet, Obama inherited an America in crisis. And there would be no quick fixes.
But we Americans, with our addiction to instant gratification and our 30-second attention spans, are an impossible lot to please. We want every problem fixed yesterday and are quick to forget anything that has gone right.
Add to that a legislative body populated by members of two parties that are so partisan they’d let their own mothers drown before they’d allow an opponent to be the one to rescue her, and you have some idea how difficult it is for any president to succeed. And lest you think I am pointing fingers at the Republicans, let me remind you that there was no shortage of Democrats who were licking their lips at every setback in Iraq in anticipation of President Bush being revealed a failure.
Unfortunately, in this day and age, with 24-hour news channels dissecting and debating the President’s every move—I mean, for crying out loud, they spent days debating the significance of Obama taking off his jacket and working in his shirtsleeves in the Oval Office—how can anyone make any real progress in government? There’s no room for trying something to see if it will work. You have to have a finished plan with guaranteed results or you’ve failed.
Let’s face it; there isn’t enough real news to fill 24 hours, seven days a week. So the networks fill the time with opinions. Any blowhard who can debate the merits of Snickers vs. Milky Way (and plenty who can’t) can have his or her 15 minutes of fame extemporizing ad nauseam about whatever piece of trivia they decide is worthy of discussion. And most of the time it’s intended not to inform, but to influence the viewers.
That’s not a difficult undertaking, since when it comes to real news, most Americans are like ostriches with their heads buried in the sand. We form an opinion based on little more than a thimbleful of (usually mis-) information, then seek out like-minded self-proclaimed experts to substantiate it, dismissing anyone who disagrees as a propagandist crackpot. Never mind the facts! I know what I know!
Which brings me back to the Fox News Network.
The “most fair and balanced” network on TV hates Obama, (and anyone with liberal, or even centrist leanings) so much that they will say or do anything to see that he fails, even if it brings the country to the brink of ruin.
As viewers and as informed citizens, we need to open our minds to ideas that challenge our usual way of thinking. We need to redefine success as something more than the failure of those with whom we disagree.
