Taking FOX On

I noticed a couple of postings from over at TPM and Openleft.com criticizing Obama for not 'taking on' Fox News when he was interviewed this weekend. In some ways I empathize with these sentiments, after all Fox has been a bastion of meaningless reporting, disinformation and attacks against the left for the sake of polarization. All this is true.

But a fact that I think these guys miss, and alot of liberals in general, is that, like it or not, millions of Americans tune into Fox, not for the academic reason of hearing what 'the other side' has to say, and not because they're ideologues, but because the attitudes on Fox are more in sync with their values. Of course, I can and do disagree with those values, but they're there and they're a large bloc of America. Obama could have gone on like Bill Clinton did and trashed those views and Fox's style of misinformation. We would have cheered and felt better. But let's face it--Obama's got our vote, and we know he's a liberal. Nothing he said Sunday would lend to the believe that he's going to have a sea change in regards to that. But to get elected he's going to have to 'reach across the aisle' and appeal to Fox News watchers for their vote and he's got to do that in a way that doesn't alienate them or his own supporters. I think Obama did a fine job of doing that.

If your goal is to get a Democrat in office and to end Bush's policies then you're going to have to do it in such a way that doesn't use anger or righteous indignation; and, ultimately, posts like those above are counterproductive to that effort.