Fox Effect and President Obama
President Barack Obama was elected in what is considered as the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. His campaign was focused around the idea of change being brought to the American people. From the day Obama was sworn into the White House he was under scrutiny and Fox held a four-day campaign speaking out against Obama.
On the first day of Presidency, Glenn Beck made the comment “Mr. President, I want to believe. I want to trust, I want to hope for change, but I am really failing to see how this is any different.” On the second day Sean Hannity stated, “He’s not going to succeed” and that “Socialism has failed”. The third day Laura Ingraham made a comment on her radio show that America was less safe under Obama’s watch. On the last day Beck made a comment that “Obama declared the end to the war on terror.”
Attacks like these continued to air on the Fox News network throughout the President’s first hundred days in office and only grew worse as time went on. It was clear that there was a difference between the way that fox was covering the news and the way other outlets covered the news. Fox seemed to be taking a strong Republican stance and became an outlet for Republican ideals. Jon Scott, the host of Happening Now, was a clear example of the bias that was being portrayed by the Fox News network. Scott interviewed Republican Congressman Paul Ryan and presented seven onscreen graphics that were labeled as “FOXfact”, which were actually taken directly from the Congressman’s opinion piece that was published earlier that day in the Wall Street Journal.
In order to affect the long-term impact of the Obama presidency, Fox News went on to oppose Obama’s stimulus package. This was the first point in which Obama would establish himself and it was also the best point to take advantage of tarnishing his image. The package had a cap on it of $800 billion, which was put into place to appease conservatives. This action was actually opposed by liberal economists on the idea that the package was too small to stimulate the economy. Attacks still came from Fox News, based on what are believed to be false statements, all in order to thwart the President’s attempt of having a successful candidacy. This is only the beginning of the controversy created by Fox News in order to skew the opinions of the public and to aid Rush Limbaugh’s statement “I hope he fails.”
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