Historical Precedent to the War on FOX News

Voltaire famously declared, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  But then, that was a long time ago and Voltaire was not a lefty.  In fact, lefties were not even invented then.  Nowadays we have lots of lefties who almost universally disapprove of what gets said on FOX News, and quite frankly they'd rather FOX not be allowed to say it.  So when the White House declared War on FOX, denizens of the internet Fever Swamps joined the fight offering up precedents and justifications. 

Here's one. The Bush administration War on NBC: 

Declaring War on NBC: White House senior strategist Ed Gillespie personally sent a letter to NBC News President Steve Capus in order to protest the way NBC was covering administration policies.  [Emphasis in the original]

A link is included, directing the reader to a 2008 post on Marc Ambinder's blog at The Atlantic where Mr. Ambinder published the full text of Ed Gillespie's letter with this introductory comment.  

White House senior strategist Ed Gillespie does not like the way that Richard Engel's interview with President Bush was edited to reflect the president's reflections on his remarks to the Knesset last Thursday.  [Emphasis added]

You may follow the link above for the full text of Mr. Gillespie's letter, but the shocking impact of the Bush administration War on NBC can be felt in the first paragraph.

Steve Capus
President, NBC News

30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10112

Mr. Capus:

This e-mail is to formally request that NBC Nightly News and The Today Show air for their viewers President Bush's actual answer to correspondent Richard Engel's question about Iran policy and "appeasement," rather than the deceptively edited version of the President's answer that was aired last night on the Nightly News and this morning on The Today Show.

Please air the president's entire response, Gillespie requested.  Lefties in the Fever Swamp were incensed over this blatant encroachment on NBC's freedom to expose the "real truth" through imaginative editing.  Air President Bush's actual answer?  What an outrage and an affront to journalism!   

That opening salvo in Gillespie's letter was followed by fourteen paragraphs disputing the accuracy of various NBC claims, and by this conclusion:

Mr. Capus, I'm sure you don't want people to conclude that there is really no distinction between the "news" as reported on NBC and the "opinion" as reported on MSNBC, despite the increasing blurring of those lines. I welcome your response to this letter, and hope it is one that reassures your broadcast network's viewers that blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann at MSNBC don't hold editorial sway over the NBC network news division.

Sincerely,

Ed Gillespie

Counselor to the President

That's the heart of it.  Obama's War is being fought over the right of progressive journalists from NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and other friendly organizations to report their enlightened opinions as fact, free from rebuttal from anyone, particularly FOX News.  The White House attacks FOX with the claim that FOX News is not really a news organization. 

The Obama team may very well be thinking that if they keep working at it they can eventually exempt FOX from the first amendment and freedom of the press.  McCain-Feingold offers them some leverage:

In addition, the bill aimed to curtail ads by non-party organizations by banning the use of corporate or union money to pay for "electioneering communications," a term defined as broadcast advertising that identifies a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary or nominating convention, or 60 days of a general election. This provision of McCain-Feingold, sponsored by Maine Republican Olympia Snowe and Vermont Independent James Jeffords, as introduced applied only to for-profit corporations, but was extended to incorporate non-profit issue organizations, such as the Environmental Defense Fund or the National Rifle Association, as part of the "Wellstone Amendment," sponsored by Senator Paul Wellstone.

FOX is clearly a for-profit corporation.  Other mainstream media organizations would like to be, but they seem to be having a hard time with the profit part of it.  With FOX declared to be a for-profit, not-news organization we inch closer to a leftoid dream.  It's a stretch, but FOX could be conceivably be banned from identifying a federal candidate within 60 days of the general election.  What's left of our press would be free to adore Obama! 

Too bad there aren't any Voltaires in the Fever Swamp.  They just don't seem to be that bright, though.