For the third time, President Barak Obama is on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, in this month’s issuse the president speaks on the Republican party, Fox News, the war in Afghanistan, the Gulf oil spill, and his music choices. The part on Fox News is what really grabbed my attention.
Fox News, has the highest ratings on cable news, but President Obama still isn’t a fan of the network’s point of view.
In a wide-ranging Rolling Stone interview, Obama swung back at the network that provides a major platform for conservative hosts and Republican political analysts (some of whom may also be seeking the presidency in a few years).
Rolling Stone Editor Jann Wenner asked Obama for his view of Fox News and his view on whether conservative mogul Rupert Murdoch’s network is a“good institution for America and for democracy.”
Obama began by saying that he will always uphold the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech, and noted that United States has a tradition “of a press that oftentimes is opinionated.” There’s only been a short “golden age of an objective press,” he said. Throughout American history, he continued, there have also been publishers like William Randolph Hearst “who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints.”
“I think Fox is part of that tradition, it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view,” Obama said. “It’s a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.”