Fox Trumpets GOP Defense of Fox to Rebut Allegations That Fox Is "Arm" of GOP

Posted by Staff, Media Matters for America at 1:00 PM on October 22, 2009.

From an October 22 FoxNews.com article headlined, "House Republicans Defend Conservative Commentators, Decry White House Feud": 

House Republican leaders on Thursday rushed to the defense of conservative commentators after President Obama dismissed Fox News as "talk radio" -- part of the White House campaign to marginalize opposing viewpoints.

Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said conservative commentators speak more for Americans than the national media outlets that have targeted them for criticism.

[...]

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, derided White House criticism of Fox News as "Chicago-style politics."

"The White House and congressional Democrats know that their liberal special interest agenda is unpopular," he said at a news conference. "And now they are following a familiar pattern: when you can't win an argument based on facts, launch vicious political attacks.

"This is Chicago-style politics' shutting out the American people and demonizing their opponents," Boehner said. "Democrats are writing the health care bill in secret, despite the president's promise to do it on C-Span. Instead, Democrats are targeting those who don't fall in line immediately -- like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, doctors and Fox News. This administration promised to usher in an era of 'post-partisanship' in Washington, but what they are doing is flat-out despicable."

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor called the White House criticism "nothing more than a distraction."

"Under fire for its management of a wave of problems, the Obama administration has reached into its bag of tricks and pulled out a new bogeyman: Fox News," he said.

"This episode is about much more than just Fox News," he added. "Today the administration's target is Fox; tomorrow it could be someone else. The administration apparently feels entitled to receive friendly (or what it subjectively deems 'balanced') news coverage at a time when it is making monumental decisions that will have sweeping consequences for years to come.

"Its heavy-handed treatment of Fox is unseemly in a democracy that depends on the free flow of information," he said.

Tagged as: fox, gop.