Discussing the Obama White House's quest to discredit and banish the
Fox News Channel, NPR's Nina Totenberg declared going "on the offensive
publicly against Fox was not too bright" and she recalled how, in
contrast, the Bush White House "just cut people dead, it froze them out, you know it froze whole institutions out, didn't talk about it."
Putting it in the most-nefarious light, she charged on the weekly Inside Washington: "It was much more like the Mob."
Seemingly ruing Team Obama's miscue in not matching the Bush method,
Totenberg asserted that "when you talk about it, you diminish your
influence."
Totenberg, on Inside Washington [1], first aired Friday night on Washington, DC's PBS station:
People in administrations make short-term decisions, and I think the one to sort of go on the offensive publicly against Fox was not too bright. Now, the Bush White House did that, it just cut people dead, it froze them out, you know it froze whole institutions out, didn't talk about it. It was much more like the Mob. When you talk about it, you diminish your influence.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center