Obama vs. Fox News

I noticed that nobody accepted by debate, though I'm more than sure that some of you have your two cents on the issue. For those of you who haven't heard, basically Obama refused to give Fox News any interviews because they're an overly biased, right-wing news station. I understand his point, but disagree with this course of action. Thoughts?

He should not have refused the the interview, no matter what his opinion on it was

At 10/13/2009 8:16:49 AM, philosphical wrote:
He should not have refused the the interview, no matter what his opinion on it was

I just said that. And I agree. But you've given no reasoning :)

It's okay... I don't need any help for my debate anyway lol (assuming someone takes it, which I'm betting they won't).

Well i personally don't think fox news is a biased right wing. I always thought it to be quite the opposite, as with most news shows that tend to give most liberal opinions. However whtat Obama needs to understand, is that EVERY news station is going to be biased, whether he likes it or not. Him saying he won't be interviewed because he believes there is more conservative, just shows his dis-taste in the party. Which of course he is. It doesn't look good to the public eye though seeing such an act of someone un-willing to open themselves to biasedness from both sides.

Obama's a b1tch. I don't think Fox really cares though. They already have more viewers than the rest of the networks combined: http://tvbythenumbers.com...

At 10/13/2009 12:53:56 PM, Nags wrote:
Obama's a b1tch. I don't think Fox really cares though. They already have more viewers than the rest of the networks combined: http://tvbythenumbers.com...

And more lies and propaganda.

Holy sh1t. The Nation, ie. biggest piece of liberal trash around, is calling Obama "Whiner-in-Chief" for the Fox ordeal amongst other things.
http://www.thenation.com...

He shouldn't have refused an interview, because lets be serious, by refusing to do it, he has just given legitimacy to Fox News and their obvious bias. And yes, there is a bias.

At 10/13/2009 12:57:04 PM, Nags wrote:
Holy sh1t. The Nation, ie. biggest piece of liberal trash around, is calling Obama "Whiner-in-Chief" for the Fox ordeal amongst other things.
http://www.thenation.com...

The Nation has been attacking him all over the place. They claim he is not a true liberal. They have a point, he certainly isn't as liberal as Fox News would have you believe...

You Americans need some running definitions.

First off, Obama is not a 'liberal.' America has never had a 'liberal' president (unless you forayed into sub-categories of 'classic liberalism' but for the sake of conversation, omit those.) Liberal implies social freedom. Period. That qualification alone rules out the vast majority of the United States government (save Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Bernie Sanders, etc. I'll get to these in a moment.) Civil liberties in America are poorly defended, despite what your constitution would say.

As for economic freedom, it can go two diametric directions. Should 'liberty' mean to allow each to define their own economic lives and spend their money as they see fit in an open market, or should 'liberty' protect those in the lower classes from the harsher realities of the economic system?

So, given a slight tweak in the definition, liberalism can be either libertarianism or socialism. America is solidly neo-conservative. It represents conservative and reserved social freedoms; from one's individual and private life to the means with which the government can deal with them. That is to say that the American government believes that it may be allowed to defined who can marry who and who can smoke what, and be allowed to throw one of their citizens on a secret plane, fly them halfway across the world and torture them.

Without giving value judgments, this is the reality of the American system. For good or bad, America is not a liberal country. To employ my favorite graphic representation;

http://www.politicalcompass.org...

This is certainly a very moderate representation of the political spectrum, but it is definitely the best. Almost every American politician can be found in the upper-right quadrant. A few can be found in the bottom to quadrants. Obama is still in the authoritarian center. What seperates him from bush is maybe... an inch. So when FoxNews calls Obama a liberal, they don't seem to realize that they are ideologically much closer to him that most people would believe. It is certainly a case of calling the kettle black.