What would Obama have to do to win Fox’s approval?

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

I find it somewhat amazing that no matter what Obama does–get prisoners back, leave prisoners where they are, fight wars, walk away from wars–no matter what he does, Fox finds some way to find the negative. Okay, maybe “amazing” is too predictable a word; it’s pretty much expected by now.

But I find myself wondering: what, if anything, could Obama do that Fox would NOT find the downside of? I mean, I don’t recall if they managed to find the downside of killing bin Laden, but I find myself curious. What could Obama do that Fox would applaud? I mean, if he resigned from the presidency, which is the ultimate goal, they’d denounce him as a quitter. Is there ANYTHING that he could do that Fox would approve of?

Thoughts?

PAD

49 comments on “What would Obama have to do to win Fox’s approval?”

  1. Nothing. Not a single thing. Not when most of their policies and all of their fundraising is based on opposing, weakening and demonizing him. The slightest sign of weakness (i.e. approval, even grudging) would be pounced on by others.

  2. What if he created the Department of Communications and appointed Rupert Murdoch to head it up? A ludicrous situation, and one capable of sabotaging the President at its whim, but it would be tough for Fox News to campaign for its overturning.

  3. I think it’s more about whether he’s on Fox’s “team” than any policy thing. So if he resigned from the presidency and denounced the democrats as the bad “team” and said he had a change of heart from ever being a democrat and appeared on fox to denounce the democrat “team” as a recurring guest celebrity then in that case they’d like him.

    They didn’t care when Palin quit, I’m imagining… I think the main thing is he’d have to be willing to denounce democrats and appear on FOX news for that purpose.

  4. Even when Obama does something they like, they just call him a hypocrite. There’s zero incentive for them to ever praise him on any level.

  5. It’s really important to understand one thing about Faux News. They are not the propaganda arm of the Republican Party. They are the financial and propaganda arm for the Murdoch media empire, which has allied itself with the right wing of the GOP because their ‘Base’ is pretty much a bunch of gullible shills.

    So, to the question at hand, what Obama would have to do is make his ‘base’ worth more as viewers than the GOP right. If that somehow were to happen, Faux would shift gears faster than a Nascar driver out of the gate..

    The Becks,Murdochs,etc of the world are about Money. And they will happy abuse whoever it takes to get it.

  6. I’m worried less about whether Obama is getting props from a cable news channel and more about whether he’s developing any kind of coherent and effective foreign policy.

  7. Q: What would Obama have to do to win Fox’s approval?

    A: Become a Republican.

    2. Nope. Either he’ll be accused of pandering to the moderate right for support or he’ll be lambasted for not having done it 6 years ago.

      1. Come on Rev, get with the talking points. They wouldn’t call him pandering. They’ve already got a narrative for this kind of thing.

        They’d say that it was an example of his rudderless, feckless, spineless leadership. This would be followed by hosts ridiculing how it was a sign of his thinking too much, because in Fox News land, a President actually thinking about what he’s doing is bad. And finally they would have contributors on who would cry in their Zhigulevskoye while bemoaning the fact that Obama isn’t a “real leader” like Vladimir Putin, because apparently their dream leader is a real communist dictator rather than someone they just laughingly call a communist dictator.

      2. Sorry, Rev. If you need an example of what might happen if Obama “saw the light” and became a GOPer, just look at the case of Artur Davis, former Representative of Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. Davis left the House to run for the Democratic nomintion as Governor of Alabama in 2010 and lost. After losing, he announced he was leaving the state, whining about the “racists who didn’t want a Black man as Governor.” Shortly after moving to Virginia and setting up residence, he suddenly announced he was becoming a Republican (and he spoke at the GOP convention in 2012).

        Now, his complaints about losing the primary race were nothing but whine (with no cheese available). He was the FIRST Black candidate in Alabama political history to LOSE the Black vote. His white primary opponent was, amazingly, even more liberal than Davis. Davis could’ve won but he deliberately ran away from his earlier support of Obama. He’d voted against the ACA (even though his own constituents–among the poorest, and least covered by health insurance, in the entire state–would’ve greatly benefited). He spent so much time distancing himself from the State’s major African-American politicians and political organizations and cozying up to white conservative Democrats during the primary race that NO ONE gave him a chance of getting the nomination. But what was so incredibly insane about his whole post-election attitude was his bizarre theory that he had a chance in hëll of winning the general election. If he couldn’t convince the Democratic base to vote for him, how did he think he could win over GOP voters? He was trying to run as a “right-of-center” Democrat in a state that already had a GOP primary field where the competitors were already outdoing each other as to who was the most conservative conservative. IOW, he was running as “Repubican Lite” in a state where the Republicans are ALL “Republican Period.”

        Davis is keeping pretty quiet overall but it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s suddenly tapped by FoxNoise to provide “commentary” during the 2016 race. (Hëll, I’d be more surprised if he doesn’t pop up later on this year.)

  8. Too bad the FCC can’t establish a legal definition of “news”: Objective commentation without unnecessary inflammatory adjectives, prejudicial inflections of the voice, rolling of the eyes or shaking of the head.

    1. Right Ted that would put ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, PBS in hot water with the FCC or more likely not because Obama and Holder would get them exempt and then they could take Fox down by itself, then lose all the emails and blame the IRS or was that lose the IRS and blame the emails, man it gets confusing when you have SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many cover-ups going on at the same time. To bad he doesn’t have a department of cover-ups that can keep him up dated.

  9. Be a conservative.
    But then he would have a problem with MSNBC TV wouldn’t he?

    So then Mr. President, don’t go changing.

  10. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. there’s not a dámņëd thing that he can do that Fox News won’t bìŧçh about. Hëll, they’ll complain about what he’s doing even if they have to change their own stated positions on a dime to do it.

    And, frankly, it goes beyond Fox News. In the last few years I’ve started to believe that many on the American Right are quite literally sick in the head when it comes to Obama and his family. Even when the Obamas suggest something positive it becomes a cause for getting red faced and livid by many on the Right.

    They have a Christmas celebration at the White House? They’re moochers who feel entitled and are living high on the hog on the taxpayer dime while the country suffers a recession. They cancel some of the big celebration stuff for Christmas? They’re attacking Christmas.

    Michelle Obama goes out and promotes the idea that kids should eat healthier foods and exercise more? You get furious rantings from many on the Right, supposedly adults, demanding to know how dare “that bìŧçh” try and tell them how to eat. Because, you know, when you say the words “children” or “kids” the average conservative adult apparently thinks that means them. Then you get the usual stupidity like calling her fat and the sharing of posts from conservative blogs that tally up the calories in the occasional official event dinners for a visiting foreign dignitaries, because no diet ever suggested that you should have a cheat night here and there, and cries of her being a hypocrite follow. Then Subway partnered with her, announcing that they were adding healthier kid meal options to their menu, and many on the Right lost their minds and started a boycott drive against Subway.

    And, dámņ, what does that say about so many on the Right these days? They decry the Chick-fil-A boycott over issues of being anti-gay rights, a boycott that I did not endorse, because being hateful bigots is protected free speech and should be defended. But offering up healthier options for busy parents to feed their kids with while out and about and on the go? That’s something they feel should be boycotted, and pretty much only because the name Obama is attached to it.

    I saw a thing in the news a few days ago where the Obamas said in an interview that they wanted their daughters to experience the virtues of hard work on a regular job at minimum-wage pay much as they themselves started out with. I would have thought that this would be seen as reasonable by the people screaming about the Obamas supposedly believing that they were entitled and moochers. I of course thought wrong as their comments have been pretty much ridiculed by many on the Right with even a few condemning them for using their position to get jobs for their daughters (which they haven’t actually done) that could go to “deserving” people who actually need them.

    When people stood up and spoke against W. Bush lying us into a bogus, costly, unnecessary war, many on the right declared that W.’s critics suffered from Bush Derangement Syndrome. I’m starting to think that may on the Right suffer from some serious projection issues when it comes to trying to diagnose their political opposition as mentally ill, because the Obama Derangement Syndrome they suffer from makes anything they complained about while W. was in office look positively tame.

    So, no, they’ll never really find something to support Obama over or stamp with their seal of approval. Most of the people working there are too twisted inside to ever do it, and the rest are too desperate for ratings to do anything but pander to the general audience that’s too twisted inside to ever do it.

      1. And I didn’t even touch their obsession with Michelle’s clothing. If they post a picture of her at a formal state dinner wearing an expensive dress? She a moocher living off of the taxpayer while the country suffers. If they post a picture of her on vacation and dressed down in off the rack clothing suitable for hiking through wherever she’s at? She’s a slob who embarresses our country by being a First Lady and dressing like she shops at K-Mart.

  11. I’ll agree with Jeff L that Fox isn’t actually the propaganda arm of the Republican party, but…

    To me, the radical right (which seems to be all to many of them right now) don’t have any real aim or goal, except to oppose things. Obama is like gay marriage, abortion, not executing innocent people, and honesty in elections — something to oppose no matter what.

  12. What could Obama do, and get good press from Fox? A lot of things!

    He could come up with a reasonable reform of our immigration policy, and then promote and get it to pass.

    He could have actually implemented ObamaCare, as it was written, so that the American people could judge it on its merits. Heck, he could have gotten it passed in the first place without more junk and backdoor amendments and other garbage so that it could be read and interpreted by the average, or even above average person.

    He could anticipate and plan something like a foreign policy, instead of always reacting in outrage every time someone does something he doesn’t like, and then do nothing…

    He could have a domestic policy that supports the everyday man and small business, instead of policies that only support his cronies and supporters.

    He could have freed a captured soldier without releasing five dangerous prisoners for him.

    What has he done right? He got us out of Iraq and is getting us out of Afghanistan, and he got Bin Laden. Not a big list!

      1. Thanks, Peter,
        Quite an interesting list. Half the items I would consider not accomplishments, but items on the writ of impeachment, but an interesting list none the less!

      1. Bill Clinton wasn’t black, but he was deluged in an unending torrent of raw sewage disguised as criticism. The “D” after Obama’s name on the ballot if far more important than his skin color.

        I’m not saying that his race is irrelevant. There’s a heavy dose of racism in many of the attacks on him. However, it’s my view that the attacks take on a racist flavor because a various people attacking the Democrat in White House are racists. If Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination and/or presidency in 2008, I’m sure she would have been inundated with a fever-swamp of misogyny. The president’s race is the lens that the attacks are focused through more than the source of them.

      2. What is it with ya’ll? How come you are all a bunch of racists? Personally, I don’t care what color his skin is, and to most Americans, it doesn’t really matter. It isn’t like he is the son of former American slaves, or anything! And he is only half black, at that!

        To too many it just seems that, just by his being identified as black gives him a free pass to do any stupid thing he can think of, just as for others, the same reason is used to decide that nothing he does can ever be right. He is a guy, just like any other. The fact that he isn’t qualified for the office has nothing to do with his skin color…

      3. and to most Americans, it doesn’t really matter.

        I think you underestimate your fellow Americans.

        And he is only half black, at that!

        Case in point.

  13. There is literally nothing he could do that they’d approve of. When the birther movement was in full swing, Fox News trotted out everyone who said anything to support it (no matter how little evidence); when it fizzled out, Fox News simply stopped discussing it without any sort of apology. When bin Laden was killed, Fox deliberately avoided mentioning Obama at any time (while thanking everyone else, from the British and the French); later, they belittled his involvement as “an easy decision to make” — while if it had gone south, sending American troops on a covert assassination mission in a country we didn’t inform would have been catastrophic.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If Obama cured cancer, Fox News (and most Republicans) would complain that he was putting doctors out of business.

  14. What would he need to do to get the Republicans’ approval?

    1. Join the Republican Party or
    2. Join the choir invisible.

    1. 2. Join the choir invisible.

      Clearly an attempt to avoid answering questions about the IRS or Benghazi.

    1. Elayne,

      Come on, according to the GOP we’re in a post-racial society! Like SNL once ‘quoted’ George Wallace on Weekend Update, “I don’t judge a man by the color of his skin. I judge him by how well you can see him in the dark.”

      1. Annnnd… Even more original, race. oh heavens me, I mustn’t be critical of my President whilst he is a black man, oh my there I go again, I mean African American.

      3. No Neil, I actually came by to let PAD know how much I was enjoying the All New X-Factor and I am looking forward to the new Spidey 2099 book but couldn’t pass up the chance to reply to a few of the same old, same old posts by the tired few who still pontificate amateur politics, I mean come on guys, you still have jerry with the 25 paragraph posts followed shortly by Craig jumping up and down all giddy saying “yeah, what Jerry said” Craig….Have an original thought for once.
        Anyone who disagrees gets the tinfoil hat.. Blah Blah Blah or called a stalker or troll Blah, Blah, Blah and a new one “butthurt” no sorry Neil not “butthurt” either, my butts fine thank you…but Craig on the other hand…. So poor, poor Obama gets no respect from Fox news, just cant seem to get anything right by Fox. Seems there’s a bit of an obsession with Fox news on this board. Now that might be some “butthurt”
        Oh and PAD, I am really digging the All New X-factor and cannot wait for the new Spidey 2099 book. Keep the good reads coming. Peace

  16. This reminds me of the SNL Weekend Update item, from Seth Meyers, when bin Laden was killed: “In the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, President Obama’s approval rating jumped to 56 percent, his highest in two years. Which shows there is literally nothing he can do to please the other 44 percent.”

  18. I’m reminded of a certain exchange from “Deja Q” way back when…

    “What must I do to convince you people?”
    “Die.”

  20. Aside from all the people who have already said, “Nothing”, Jason M. Bryant said what I was thinking.

  22. From Media Matters for America:

    We may have finally uncovered the answer to the lingering question of what it would take for Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace to not host a discussion about Benghazi. The solution: Have U.S. Special Operations forces capture the lead suspect in the 2012 terror attack.

    {emphasis mine}

  23. That USMNT advancement has to got to knock the approval rating up a couple of percentage points!

    USA! USA! USA!

  25. I think the only thing Obama could do to get praise from Fox News would be to buy Fox. Then he would be the one who dictates what they say.

  26. I think that Fox News did express agreement with Obama’s desire to drone strike the American citizen who is a member of Al Qaeda.

  27. What PAD describes is what I’ve called “Mean Girl Syndrome.” Often a kid is singled out for bullying not for a specific difference (the “nerdy” girl, the “fat” girl, the “minority” girl) but rather the head bully deems her with the mark of “loser” and *anything* she does is considered suspect. She wears a dress everyone else wearing… but she wears it wrong or it’s suddenly no longer popular because she’s wearing it. And so on.

    The big debate is whether animus toward Obama is automatically racial. I don’t think it always is. However, I think the “Mean Girl Syndrome” is otherwise sane people *is* arguably racial — the reason this fairly middle of the road guy is considered a socialist radical. Has Obama, from the moment he appeared on the scene, done anything to justify the complete distrust and fear of him some people have? People who stock up on guns (a fact) after his election because they’re convinced he’s going to “take away their guns” (something he’s never claimed to want to do) or impose a fascist regime. I voted against Romney because of things he *actually* said he was going to do.

    There’s also the notion that Obama chafes people because he’s a “big city Chicago elitist.” However, in the black communities in the South, for example, he’s extremely popular and these are hardly Ivy Tower people in the parts of the South I grew up in.

    Recently, I was talking with someone who wasn’t a big Obama fan and his biggest “beef” with him was that he’d campaigned on being this big “post-partisan” politician who’d bring all sides together and he failed. I thought it was fascinating how the blame is squarely on Obama for this.

    But anyway, I think the best summation of FOX’s coverage of Obama is the scene from FERRIS BUELLER: “What’s the score? Nothing to nothing. Who’s winning? The Bears.”

Comments are closed.