The White House is attacking Fox News again: it’s insufficiently obsequious for the White House’s taste. It’s a “research arm” of the Republican party, you see. And no, it’s not just Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity whom the Obama team is miffed at — it’s the whole network.

On some level this is comical. No candidate and no administration has gotten such glowing treatment from the media. You would think they’d look at the big picture and be content that much of their work — ignoring uncomfortable story lines, vilifying the opposition, editing out the “uhs” and “ums” from speeches, and casting news in the most Obama-favorable light possible — is done for them. But no, they find the one TV cable network that sees its role as entirely independent of the Obama agenda to be such an irritant and so offensive that they must grouse about the speck of tough coverage in an ocean of fluff.

It bespeaks a defensiveness and thin-skinned disposition that started with the president but has now permeated his entire staff. The 24/7 news cycle is now to blame for his problems selling health care. The CNBC reporter who identified the ills associated with a bailout mentality gets blasted from the podium in the White House press office. And so it goes. Why can’t they just report the White House spin as delivered each day?

Given the disposition of the media, Republican administrations tend to have low expectations and high thresholds for frustration when it comes to media attacks and bias. They assume from the get-go that all their actions and comments will be flyspecked. They tend not to rail at hostile media coverage. What’s the point if you’re a Republican office holder? It’s simply a fact of life.

But not for the Obama team. One can expect that, as the problems mount, the magic fades, and the legislative logjams collect, the Obama team will have more and more complaints about media coverage. They would do well to buck up and get used to it. The public tends not to look kindly on a whiny White House.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 3:51 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.