Now that Obama's won, Fox News can't seem to catch his eye
Back in October then-Sen. Barack Obama granted a then-rare campaign interview. That time, not surprisingly, it went to the N.Y. Times Magazine and the candidate reportedly whined to the writer:
"I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me, right?
"Because the way I'm portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?"
It's not unusual for public figures to feel misportrayed or even abused by media organizations. John McCain and his people expressed some strong concerns several times about the same Times newspaper.
Now that the campaign is over and Obama is president-elect, his reticence to talk with the media is gone. Now, he's eager to spread the impression of abundant pre-oath energy and activity.
So, he's held four news conferences and two sit-down TV interviews since election day, including three news conferences three days in a row this week. He's broken the news conference record for all recent presidents-elect.
At these news sessions since Nov. 4, the future commander in chief has answered a total of 22 questions from different reporters. Wednesday, it was NPR, the N.Y. Daily News and CNN.
But not once has the election victor called on a representative of Fox News. He just hasn't seemed to spot them waving their hand for recognition.
Fox News is widely viewed among Democrats as a Republican news organization, although it might be hard to convince George W. Bush of that after Fox's 2000 DUI story that cost his campaign Maine (and allowed Florida's disputed vote-counting to matter).
Or to convince Sarah Palin that Fox is GOP-flavored, even if she knew she was in Africa when you told her.
It appears to be an Obama coincidence, like Texan conservative George W. Bush not finding room for a liberal N.Y. Times interview in his impossible presidential schedule for the last nine years.
Long-term vindictiveness is not a viable political communications strategy for those who've won elections. As Bush's exit era sub-basement approval ratings might suggest. But officeholders must learn that lesson for themselves.
Or not.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Photo credit: Getty Images
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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To Andrew Malcolm: I doubt seriously that Barack Obama could ever be catagorized as a whiner. If you'd have been paying attention, you would have figured that by now. It looks more like the only one whining here is you and/or Fixed News. Besides, who could possibly care if Murdock's mouthpiece does without asking another stupid question then misreporting the answer? Certainly not me or the other 65% of the American people who approve of the President-Elect's performance right now.
Posted by: Milana Dietrich | November 28, 2008 at 07:50 AM
Are you for real? I can't believe you are honestly comparing Bush's 9-year snubbing of the New Yor Times with Obama's 3-week long ignoring of Fox News.
Posted by: Jake | November 28, 2008 at 09:22 AM
BO promised to be the president of all the people, including those who didn't vote for him. I'm a Republican who watches FOXNews, so I guess he's 'dissing' me!
Posted by: MissButterfly | November 28, 2008 at 09:55 AM
If MSNBC has been the equal of Fox, the race would have been a lot lot closer.
http://www.DailyPUMA.com
Posted by: Alessandro Machi | November 28, 2008 at 11:14 AM
The description of Obama in this article shows he hasn't cchanged since he has been elected. CSS.
Posted by: Roger H. Cook,MD | November 28, 2008 at 11:18 AM
Andrew. Starting your article using the word "whined" sets a negative tone right off the bat. Please....we have had enough energy spent on negativity. Time to channel our energies and actions towards solving the huge problems we are facing.
Posted by: Cara Black | November 28, 2008 at 12:08 PM
"I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal." THE ONLY thing that Jughead has said that is truth.
Posted by: bill | November 28, 2008 at 12:20 PM
"President-Elect's performance right now. " Another koolaid drinker who bought the "Office of the President Elect" Barbra Streisand.
Posted by: bill | November 28, 2008 at 12:22 PM
It's OK. When 0bamas ratings are in the 20% area 4years from now after trying to force socialism on a capitalist society, maybe he will see the error of his ways.
In the meantime, I will show the same respect to the Marxist Alinsky-ite that the liberal dimocRATS have shown to President George W. Bush,
Posted by: Douglas Collins | November 28, 2008 at 01:28 PM
Obama's afraid of tough questions, so he will talk to those who kiss up to him.
Posted by: Carrie | November 28, 2008 at 05:09 PM
If he wants to get an accurate message or quote out, he'll continue to bypass 'Faux' News except for questions on the Easter Egg Roll, Lighting the Tree, or Pardoning the Turkey.
I'd trust the National Enquirer before 'Faux' News, apparently Rupert Murdock and Roger Ailes are of a similar opinion, if the 'reporter' is O'Reilly.
Posted by: dottholliday | November 29, 2008 at 01:16 PM
This guy's right. Fox News is "fair and balanced." It's not as if Murdoch went after the right-wing market.
MSNBC can be slanted the other way too -- every news organization has some slant -- but Fox borders on not even being news.
Posted by: Chris | December 04, 2008 at 10:25 PM
I watch FOX News and you could say most of the correspondents are right-leaning. However, they also include very liberal guests and Democrats from the entire range of ideologies. Yes, there are outwardly Conservative shows I think O'Reilly is actually a Conservative guy by nature but, if you watch him for a while he is actually very pragmatic on most issues and will agree or disagree with Republicans and Democrats pretty much evenly. Sean Hannity is outwardly and openly conservative but this is a talk show and there is always a liberal host as well as Hannity on each episode. During the presidential election they time all coverage of McCain and Obama to make sure they get equal airplay. This is absolutely untrue of other News organizations which had a love affair with the Obama campaign and chose to ignore allot of the topics that FOX had to break and other News Networks would be slow and reluctant to mention BIll Ayres, Rev. Wright, the Rezko connection (ignored everywhere but Rezko is talking again)
Posted by: joe6packmon1 | December 15, 2008 at 09:40 AM