Taki Magazine

A Plague on Both Their Houses

by Paul Gottfried on October 24, 2009

Last night my older son, who unlike me is a Bush-McCain Republican, called to express his alarm that the Obama administration is using, in the words of Michael Barone, “brass knuckles” and “thuggery” to intimidate FOX-news. It appears that David Axelrod and Rahm Emmanuel have badmouthed the neocon-Murdoch empire; moreover, like their boss, they are hesitating to give FOX reporters the same access in presidential interviews as they would give to friendlier news sources. Apparently this is seen as the first step in closing down the “conservative” opposition, and my Republican relatives and acquaintances are trembling in horror over the coming leftist totalitarian order.

This fear is of course greatly exaggerated. Not only is the government not closing down FOX. This channel seems to be thriving by posing as the beleaguered American Right, which is fighting for freedom against the radical Left. Never mind, that Krauthammer and other news contributors were swooning over the symbolism of Obama’s election for weeks after the event—and continuously congratulating the country for having overcome its racist heritage. Now these “conservatives” presumably know better, particularly since the GOP is not in power, and their multibillion dollar media operation claims to be fighting on our behalf for the American way of life.

I am conflicted by this situation. Emotionally I’m with anyone who wants to destroy FOX, which has diligently and steadily worked to isolate our side. My view of the present conflict is similar to that of a Russian White watching the Stalinists and Trotskyists fight it out. (Actually I did have a horse in that contest, in which the less dangerous side won.) Why should one care if one’s implacable enemies are having a street fight? As a member of the Old Right, I despise both sides about equally, but perhaps the neocons a bit more. After all, they were the ones who successfully marginalized us, with the assistance of their liberal friends.

The pity is that we can’t get rid of these successful interlopers on the American right. A loss for them against the administration would mean very little. It would mean that FOX employees would be made to go to the back of the line at Obama’s press conferences. The concern that the Fairness Doctrine would be reintroduced by Congress in order to neuter the opposition does not seem to be based on much at all, at least at the present time. All the administration has done is to demote FOX relative to other news sources. Further, I can’t see why our side should give a damn even if the Fairness Doctrine is brought back. We are the only ones whom FOX has pushed off the stage. We’d have nothing to lose and everything to gain if FOX were required to include the now excluded Right in its conversation with the Left.

What is even more upsetting is that the more the administration criticizes FOX, the greater will become its hold on right-of-center Americans. In my ideal world FOX and the rest of the neocon empire would sink into the ocean but this is not going to happen. What is happening is that our enemies are growing more influential by hallucinating about the threat that they’re facing. For this reason alone, I wish that the Democrats would leave the neocons alone. Their disparaging remarks are allowing our more immediate enemies to tighten their grip on much of the American public. This public may be lost to us forever if this phony war goes on. 

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