Shame on you, Sen. Obama, for helping justify Fox News’ fascist agenda!

[Larkspur]

The following is a draft of my letter to Obama's Sunday Fox News Interview. I plan on faxing it to his campaign HQ

Dear Senator Obama,

I am angry and offended that you would go onto Fox News for an interview. Fox News is a fascist propaganda network whose sole purpose is to denigrate Democrats and liberals. They have taken Hermann Goering’s infamous quote about war and extreme nationalism

Naturally the common people don't want war …. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

And turned it into a business plan.

By going onto Fox News and regurgitating the right wing talking points fed to you by Chris Wallace, you helped Fox News denigrated Democrats and liberals. You insulted millions of Democrats and liberals past and present. My late mother, a proud liberal and Democrat, served in the US Army during World War II. My late father was a former Democratic chair in Wausau, Wisconsin. Fox News daily insults their memory and the honor of millions of Democrats and liberals, who currently and in the past have served our country, by following Hermann Goering’s philosophy.

Shame on you, Sen. Obama, for helping justify Fox News’ fascist agenda!

The people who own, operate, and staff Fox News are not interested in a serious discussion of the issues nor the truth. Their mission is to implement Hermann Goering’s infamous quote about war and extreme nationalism into action by publicly mocking, insulting, and disparaging Democrats, liberals, and anyone else who opposes them and their benefactors.

To honor and respect Democrats and liberals, past and present, and to really help change the political discourse in America you should not have gone on Fox News. Your other choice after accepting their invitation should have been to reframe the debate using progressive frames, but unfortunately for us all, you did not challenge the bullying tactics of Fox News. You were easily suckered into regurgitating right wing frames that disparage Democratic and liberal Americans. Why? To score negligible political points with Fox News’ ultraconservative audience? Was it worth selling your political soul to Fox News for no gain with ultraconservatives?

Shame on you, Sen. Obama, for helping justify Fox News’ fascist agenda!

You claim that your political philosophy is the belief that real divisions should not stand in the way of conversation. Did it ever occur to you that the Right Wing, which Fox News represents, is not interested in a conversation with their political opponents? They want to establish a dictatorship. President Bush captioned this mentality in a comment to CNN on December 18, 2000 -- “If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

Since you’ve appeared on Fox News for an interview, you have single handily destroyed a year-long battle by progressives to delegitimize Fox News as a credible news network for a possible and yet-to-be-determined short-term gain for your primary Presidential campaign. Will we be hearing you on Rush Limbaugh’s show soon? His audience is much larger than Fox News’.

Prior to your interview with Fox News, your campaign assured liberal bloggers that you would “take on” Fox News. As the leading candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, we were expecting you to challenge their right wing frames that demonize Democrats and liberals and reframe the debate with progressive ones. You failed to change the toxic frames of Fox News in your interview and instead you colluded with them to hurt Democrats and liberals. You owe every Democrat and liberal a public apology for going on Fox News and helping them continue their defamation of Democrats and liberals.

And should you become President of the United States, will you lead the effort to repeal the Telecommunications Act of 1996 or pass another bill to break the mega telecommunication monopolies that are feeding the American people gossip and inuendo as news?

Senator, I voted for you in Connecticut’s February 5th Primary because this nation needs a new direction and you were the only viable candidate other than Senator Hillary Clinton at that time. Your poor debate performance on Fox News on Sunday, April 27, 2008 tells me that you will not change that direction for the better and that you can easily be manipulated by the Right Wing media consortium of which Fox News is a major asset. You are just fortunate that Senator Hillary Clinton is a worse panderer to the Right Wing Media than yourself, but “more of the same” is not what I expected from you.

[NJmaverick]

1. Are you sending one to Hillary??? She is going on Bill O Lielly

[City Lights]

5. And she's already been on Greta's show. nt

[Larkspur]

23. I don't support Hillary

Read the last paragraph in my draft. I say she panders to the right wing media more than he does.

[WinkyDink]

24. You must not mind that, either, right?

[Kokonoe]

2. Your giving him a little heat.

But how can we know the motives of his campaign.
At present, the media is trying to paint Obama as a racist.
If he is reported as refusing to appear on a network that caters to fill in the blank.

While Hillary is running as an alternative to McCain (ie. not Obama), catering to the fill in the blank Right Wing Media veiwer.
Then appearing should be in order.

[Larkspur]

28. As I stated in my draft, Obama could have defended Democrats

and liberals instead of helping denigrate us using Faux News talking points -- calling us chablis drinking liberals. He added to Faux News' vocabulary instead of educating Faux News viewers that Democrats and liberals are patriotic Americans.

Obama went on Faux News so he can pander to right wingers. It was a cheap shot on Obama's part for trying to get votes he will not get anyway.

[Kokonoe]

30. Someone has to win, and Obama is the winner.

We cannot tear down Obama for acting like Hillary, or we would attack all our candidates.

Hillary is doing the best she can to get the typical McCain supporter behind her.
Thats strategically the only way she can win. So get under the bus like everybody else.
The only vote in the GE is for McCain or the democratic nominee

[bowens43]

3. You're being ridiculous. n/t

[Eurobabe]

4. Stop with the holier than thou attitude, Clinton is going on O'Lielly

too. Get over it.

[cali]

6. lol

again? what a crock of silly shit. There are far more important things to expend outrage on.

[mattclearing]

7. Blah, blah, blah. n/t

[KittyWampus]

8. You're out of touch w/reality if you think you and a handful of bloggers will "delegitimize" Fox

the fact of the matter, the reality, is that millions of people actively or passively watch Fox. And to say all those people are hopeless GOP'ers who will not be swayed is such a fucked-up attitude I don't know where to start.

Take your sanctimonious, holier-than-thou attitude and go talk to some regular people.

You are part of the problem the Left faces. You are part of how the Right manages to falsely paint us as elitist.

Grow up and open your eyes.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

10. FAUX has been losing viewers for a couple of years. It is a propaganda arm of the RW.

Pres. Clinton and Sen. Dodd have both gone on shows and told them what they can do with their propagandizing. And, yes, those who get their "news" from FAUX are not well informed, at all, if that is an exclusive source for news.

My goodness,you seem to have some affection for that channel, though.

[KittyWampus]

12. fuck you to anyone insinuating I have "some affection" for Fox. Reality is, it plays in homes &

businesses across the country. People who aren't aware watch it actively or passively.

The whole point of running for office is to win. To reach out to people.

And fools that want to play to those already in their camp LOSE.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

21. I guess it's the throwing over of most of the Democratic base which was upsetting to me.

My apologies for suggesting you like FAUX news.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

9. Reading the transcript, he sounds like a Repub, plain and simple.

He waxes positively about the wonderful things the Republicans have done, embraces and applauds the anti choice crowd, doesn't talk about bringing troops home but "changing the mission" in Iraq (another surge?) and says he voted Democratic because he had to but he didn't really believe in the votes and defends Democrats who betrayed the party to confirm Roberts for SCOTUS. He then accuses the DEMOCRATS of being partisan.

He also praises free trade and deregulation.

For starters.

I've been supporting Sen. Clinton over Sen. Obama primarily over the differences in their Health Care Plans. We'll see if she becomes a Republican on O'Rielly tonight, but I don't think she will. I guess we'll see.

I am so disappointed in Sen. Obama's responses, it was an opportunity for him to galvanize the Democratic base and continue to hammer away at their lack of credibility. Instead, he gave them more credibility.

:-(

[KittyWampus]

13. Your girl already HAS turned into a GOP'er. Only a tool would still deny that.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

19. So, now you're personally insulting me?

I said nothing hateful to you, but that didn't keep you from attacking me. I was disappointed in what Sen. Obama said, so let the name calling begin.

[Barack_America]

11. Dude, it was the Sunday morning show. It was Chris Wallace.

Sunday morning shows get a pass, IMO. I will even watch Fox News Sunday if the guest is interesting enough. It's not the same as O'Reilly or Hannity, who Hillary seems quite chummy with, by the way.

Besides, Obama already went on Fox proper to quell the Wright thing. Nobody seemed upset then. Why?

:shrug:

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. The very definition of "Damned if you do, damned if you don't"

The Hillarians will say and do anything. Anything. They're maniacs.

[iamahaingttta]

15. Personally, I think that anyone who watches Fox...

...is a sucker and a tool, and by giving their advertisers your eyeballs, you forfeit your right to complain about the state of the world. If you give their advertisers your eyeballs, you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Go ahead and call me an elitist or out of touch or whatever, I don't care. If you watch Fox, you are a sucker and a tool.

[knixphan]

27. damn right!

[frickaline]

16. Maybe its just me just I can't understand this sentiment

While I agree that Fox News is extremely right sided politically, I cannot understand why its not a good idea to bring to them a more liberal message. It seems to me that there is only gain here for Obama and liberals everywhere. This is almost a type of censorship, it seems to me, and I personally would be happy to see all democrats use any means at their disposal to challenge this RW infrastructure. After all, you don't see the RW shy away from The Daily Show (and I'm sure they think of his show as a liberalist agenda) ... do you think they should? Should we all just polarize and never hear the opposing viewpoints?

[Larkspur]

22. Obama did not bring a progressive or liberal view to the Faux News interview

He pandered to the fascists on that network.

[MadBadger]

17. I dont know what interview you saw, but he didnt have a poor performance

[book_worm]

18. To appeal to conservatives in Indiana Hillary will kiss O'Reilly's ass on his show

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

20. If so, I will register the same disappointment that I feel about Sen. Obama.

I will await the transcript, if unable to watch.

Hopefully she won't turn into a Republican as he did.

[LoZoccolo]

25. Lame. n/t

[Medusa]

26. Funny I feel the same about Hillary for being pals with Rupert Murdoch

and sucking up to the Fox News crowd. They love her so much they are featuring her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe in one of their commercials. So if Obama giving an interview to Fox is just horrible how in the world do you classify Hillary's sucking up to the likes of Rush Limbaugh & Rupert Murdoch? Pot? Meet Kettle.

[Larkspur]

29. I agree with you about Hillary

I did NOT vote for Hillary in CT's primary nor will I vote for her period. But Hillary is not the front runner for the Dem Prez nomination. Obama is.

[cliffordu]

31. LOL you are SUCH a kidder!! tuzla