The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    DF's picture

    Fox News Launches Obama Change Index

    By DF on Sun, 10/25/2009 - 10:56pm | Politics

    No, I'm not making this up:

    How will this ingenius piece of Web 2.0 software be used?  My guess is however Fox wants.  If they want to attack Obama on change, they have two ways to go.  On the one hand, they can criticize him for not creating enough change, thus failing in his stated mission.  On the other hand, they can criticize him for creating too much change by dragging real Americans into the shadowy, bi-curious world of Islamic socialism.  Heads they win, tails they win!

    AttachmentSize
    Image icon Picture 1.png183.38 KB
    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    Is it just me, or is this widget confusing to the point of meaninglessness? It's basically a glorified approval rating meter, I think, but the "change index" stuff makes it seem like something more abstract. The bubbles are weird and nonintuitive. And I assume that the 0-700 scale is just a sum of the 0-100 scales from the component elements, but it took me some time and exploration to figure that out. I hope that FOX paid less for their O-Change-O-Meter than the RNC paid for flash-dancing Michael Steele.

    I wonder if Obama's counterattack has put FOX in something of a bind. Obama's a politician. He's expected to attack his opponents. But FOX needs at least a pretense of objectivity--not all of its watchers are right-wing zealots. If FOX comes out too aggressively against Obama and appears to be feuding with him, then it will simply confirm his criticisms.


    by Michael Wolraich on Sun, 10/25/2009 - 11:49pm

    No, it's not just you.  I was equally baffled.

    I'm still not sure whether the WH will reap the political benefits of this move.  Most of all, it's been interesting to me to hear people from organizations like ABC and even NPR engaging in fraternal defense of Fox.  Of course, these organizations aren't perfect themselves, but they do seem to me to be above Fox in a number of respects.  There didn't appear to be a revolving door between the Bush administration and other ostensible news organizations, as was the case with Tony Snow and Karl Rove.  Other supposed news organizations likewise are not engaged in actively promoting a movement against the U.S. government a la Glenn Beck's 9/12 project, a practice being continued by Fox new-hire John Stossel.

    Oh, and most other organizations who claim to be providing news don't generally make it a practice to just make shit up.

    Is the WH hoping for an "emperor wears no clothes" moment with Fox?  I think they could get it, but it seems that the rest of the media will have to acknowledge that Fox really is a different animal.


    by DF on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 1:50pm

    "On the other hand, they can criticize him for creating too much change by dragging real Americans into the shadowy, bi-curious world of Islamic socialism. "

    Best. Sentence. Ever.


    by William K. Wolfrum on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 6:09am

    Thanks, Wolfie!


    by DF on Mon, 10/26/2009 - 1:50pm