Tag Results for Anita Dunn

Despite White House Communications Director Anita Dunn's frank assessment of Fox News' credibility - "it really is more a wing of the Republic Party" - Fox appears to be having little trouble attracting big-name talent.

Exhibit A: John Stossel, who parachuted from ABC to Fox and made his first on-air appearance today. ""I could not get [my health care special] on the air at ABC," Stossel complained to Fox anchors. "They were doing Michael Jackson stories. Fox covers the news, so finally, the freedom to talk about a few things I know about." (At least one insider at ABC disputes this.)

Exhibit B: Lou Dobbs, who wanted to do a guest stint on Don Imus' show (Fox Business News) but apparently couldn't. CNN told the New York Observer's Felix Gillette that the network did not pre-approve the appearance. (Interestingly, there would seem to be little reason for Dobbs to want to grace Imus' show, since the I-man told Chris Wallace in July that Dobbs was a "grassy knoll nut" for perpetuating questions about Obama's birth certificate.)

And almost three weeks ago, CNBC's Charlie Gasparino bowed of out an impending Imus appearance after CNBC appeared to nix it. "I got an email from [his booker] last night," Imus said. "She says CNBC won't let Charles Gasparino on so he is cancelling his appearance here because we are on FBN now, how long will it take him to grow a pair so he can come on with us?"

Dobbs, Stossel and Gasparino, though, WANT to appear on Fox, in spite of the ramifications. Why? I invite your thoughts.

Fresh off our "Beat the Press" discussion Friday about the wisdom - or lack thereof - of the Obama administration's decision to take on Fox News, the president's proxies took to the airwaves again on Sunday. In the process, they revealed a strategy that is perhaps more nuanced than we thought.

Simultaneously (at least in Boston), Senior Advisor David Axelrod appeared on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" while Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel spoke with CNN's John King on "State of the Union," reports TVNewser, which has posted video clips from both appearances. Both men, higher on the White House food chain than communications director Anita Dunn, reinforced Dunn's charge that Fox is basically the research and communications arm of the Republican Party.

Yet Alexrod also made clear that the Obama White House will continue to engage with Fox even as it calls the network out, saying: "We're going to appear on their shows." Alexrod also tried to drive a wedge between Fox and other media outlets, saying that Fox's programming is "not really news" and admonishing Stephanopoulos and ABC "that other news organizations, like yours, ought not to treat them that way."

Emanuel also hit on the wedge theme on King's show, saying the White House didn't want Fox's agenda advocacy setting the journalistic pace for "the CNN's and the others in the world."  Emanuel also tried to put the Obama vs. Fox White House dustup and in perspective, saying "the concentration of the White House" was on things like the economy, Iraq, and Afghanistan, not O'Reilly, Hannity, and Beck.

What seems increasingly clear is that the White House sees now sees Fox as acting like the neighborhood bully - the more outrageous statements Fox commentators get away with (Obama is a "racist" etc.), the more they feel emboldened to make even more outrageous ones. So if ignoring Rupert Murdoch's network isn't going to make it go away, the best White House strategists believe they can do is to actively stand up to Fox, while shaming other networks into rejecting its brand of nakedly partisan journalism.

In short, if the White House is picking a fight it can't win, it's because it doesn't view "winning" as an achievable outcome. Instead, isolating and managing Fox appears to be the goal, and even that is certain to be a tall order.

What do you think?

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said this week that Fox News is “not a news network at this point” and “a wing of the Republican Party.”  Why the war of words and how might it impact other news divisions?