Unfortunately, I was one of those thousands of people without power following the blizzard in the Mid-Atlantic region this weekend.  Power was out for 28 hours, but things are now back up and running.  Hope to have the Weekly posted tonight (if I can stay awake).

For some reason, the DISQUS plug-in isn’t allowing any comments at the moment.  I’ll try to find a work-around.

UPDATE 1:  I’ve turned off the DISQUS plug-in, so comments are now available.  I will try to reactivate the plug-in again later today.

As our long-time readers know, the U.S. Common Sense has a history of donating our ad revenue to specific causes.  I am happy to announce that we are donating our ad revenue from December to go to the Haiti relief fund.  I say “we” because this is all possibly by your support.  Thank you for making this possible.

From the Red Cross donation website:

Thank you for your generous gift to the American Red Cross in response to the earthquakes that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010. Your gift makes it possible for the Red Cross to provide comfort and hope to disaster victims across the affected region, helping to meet critical needs such as for shelter, food, relief supplies and other emergency assistance.

…

Your generous support means the most to the people who rely on the Red Cross to help them through some of the most difficult times of their lives. Our work can only be accomplished because of compassionate donors like you.

Once again, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
American Red Cross

Due to the overwhelming generosity of our supporters, we are experiencing a lag time in donation processing. Email receipts may take up to 24 hours to be delivered to your inbox. Thank you for your patience.

I want to start this article with two important quotes:

The First Amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Thomas Jefferson stated:

No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.

Two of the greatest gifts ever passed down to us by our Founding Fathers were the Constitution and a collection of letters written by them on the various concepts included within the Constitution itself. Over the past two centuries, these two gifts have been examined, challenged, and reexamined numerous times as we continue to grow, expand, and adapt to an ever-changing world. 2009 has been no exception.

Just 8 months ago, we were discussing how the Obama Administration was squaring off head-to-head against Rush Limbaugh. If you don’t remember, Limbaugh was challenging the Obama agenda by stating he wished he would fail. This initiated a PR war between the White House and conservative talk show hosts, with people such as Glenn Beck seeing his ratings skyrocket on his new show on the FOX News network.

Knowing that his criticism of Obama would continue to propel his ratings, Beck quickly began running a series of investigations into various aspects of the Obama Administration. While most of his discussions dealt with policy and the fear of socialism, it was his series on the Czars that Beck hit a home run. Through investigations, he latched on the controversy surrounding “Green Czar” Van Jones and his associations with socialist groups.

FOX News, the leading cable news channel and home of the Glenn Beck program, covered the information uncovered by Beck, and was later picked up by other media outlets. This growing coverage and allegations led to Van Jones resigning from the Obama Administration. In retaliation, the White House expanded their criticism to the FOX News network itself. Anita Dunn, White House communications direction, stated during an interview that FOX News “is not a news network.”

As the feud between the White House and FOX News continued, the other news networks started discussing the debate, questioning the position of the Administration. Looking to strengthen their argument against FOX News, members of the Administration went on to the other news channels explaining their criticism. Rahm Emanuel stated on CNN, “More importantly, is to not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization.”

But what is a legitimate news organization? Is it an organization that has dull anchors sitting behind a desk, repeating the same news all day long? Is it an organization that reports only what is positive and supportive of the government? Is it an organization that is devoid of commentary or character?

I think the fact that FOX News carries the largest number of views that the other cable news networks has to attest to the interest viewers have with the outlets presentation. And the fact that it brings in a near-equal portion of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents shows that it isn’t just the “communications arm of the Republican Party.” FOX News, however, does have a problem. While their news reporting is straight forward, most of their non-commentary programming does include commentary asides. These asides make the channel interesting to watch, but generates part of the complaints against the organization as well.

Even with the commentary, however, it doesn’t justify the Presidents desire to either isolate the news organization. As Thomas Jefferson stated, “I am… for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.” As he points out, even when the criticism is unjust, the press must be allowed to operate without the presence of undue influence by the Government. The actions by the White House against FOX News this past month has only emboldened the news outfit to continue to press the issues, and in some small part, created a martyr that the other news outfits have started to look towards. Not that CNN or MSNBC wants to stand side-by-side with FOX News every day of the week, but they have started questioning “Who’s next?”

What happens in 2012 when Obama is defeated and a Republican is elected? If the new President has issues with the press, he or she could take a similar action as Obama, especially if no one stood up to Obama and question his practices. The press is a key defender of our public because of their role in investigating and reporting on the actions of our politicians. If they were to go unchecked, we could lose individual freedoms, and on an extreme scale, we could lose the form of government that Jefferson and all of our other Founding Fathers worked so hard to create.

This is a no-win situation for the President.  Not just because this is FOX News, but any President that thinks he can successfully fight with the media and win is only deluding himself.  It is  just asking for more critical reporting as well as sowing the seeds of doubt in the public as a whole.  I feel that the President should just abandon this PR campaign without making mention of their change in plan, and allow the uproar to die in the middle of the newspapers somewhere.

Related articles:
Politico – “White House: Media shouldn’t follow FOX”
NewsBusters – “White House Says Fox Is Not A News Network”
Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government – “Freedom of the Press”
The Huffington Post – “Fox Should Pay Obama for Pitching It”
Washington Examiner – “Fox News lies but so do the others”
American Thinker – “It’s Time for Obama to Get a Clue”
The Los Angeles Times – “Obama’s misguided Fox hunt”
CBS – “President Obama’s Feud with FOX News”
Midwest Voices – “Obama vs. Fox News enters dangerous phase”
NPR – “Weighing In On White House Vs. Fox News: An Apology”