Beacon Street Journal

Why is President Obama obsessed with Fox News? The answer should be obvious. Alone among members of the mainstream media, they have refused to join in the joyous, non-stop Barack Obama love fest that started during the presidential campaign and that has continued unabated since his inauguration.

How shamelessly in the tank for Obama is the mainstream press? Even though he has them in his hip pocket, Obama himself, at times, seems to secretly disdain their groveling, a sentiment perhaps best expressed by his recent comment made at the White House correspondent’s dinner: “Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me.”

From NBC’s Brian William’s obsequious bow after a day spent with the president, to the infomercial on selling Obama’s health care plan produced by ABC News, coverage of Obama Administration has been fawning, uncritical and craven. In their reporting of our president, the mainstream media has become the sycophantic court jesters of the Obama Administration. The White House doles out much coveted access; in return, media outlets produce puff-pieces that regurgitate the talking points of the Administration.

As if having all the major broadcasters under his domain wasn’t enough, consider this odd characterization of Fox News by President Obama when questioned about his favorable press coverage by CNBC’s John Harwood:

“It’s very hard for me to swallow that one,” Obama says. “First of all, I’ve got one television station entirely devoted to attacking my administration. I mean, you know, that’s a pretty . . .” “I assume you’re talking about FOX,” Harwood interrupts. “Well, that’s a pretty big megaphone,” the president answers. “And you’d be hard-pressed, if you watched the entire day, to find a positive story about me on that front.”

Here is an interesting statistic: the ratings of the major broadcasters’ evening news programs as well as the cable news channels continues to erode in tandem with their proclivity to act as mouthpieces for the Obama Administration. In fact, Fox News consistently beats — by wide margins — the combined ratings of MSNBC and CNN.

In short, FOX News is the proverbial thorn in Obama’s side, because of all the major media outlets, they are the lone wolf in terms of reporting on the actions of the Obama Administration in a critical manner. That used to be what was called “journalism” in the pre-Obama media age. But now, acting as a check on a president’s abuse of power has been willingly supplanted by nonstop cheer-leading.

Update: Ratings for both the CBS and ABC Evening News Broadcasts set an all time low last week. Does this surprise anyone?