Washington: In the midst of a review of America's Af-Pak strategy in the war against terror, President Barack Obama has opened a new front of a different kind targeting Fox News TV channel owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch.
On Sunday, two of Barack Obama's top aides took shots at Fox in a CNN programme. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said it was "not a news organization," and the president's top strategist, David Axelrod, said it was "not really a news station."
White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has called Fox "an arm of the Republican party".
The raging war of words with political and media commentators weighing in was set off by President Obama himself saying that there is "one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration."
The trigger for the stand-off seems to have been in late September, when Obama appeared on every Sunday morning talk show except for Chris Wallace's show on Fox News, effectively snubbing the network.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, added fuel to the fire Tuesday. Asked whether Axelrod should have described the Fox network as one that is not really a news organization, Gibbs said: "We render opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness of their coverage."
Asked for clarification in terms of distinguishing the network's coverage from other cable channels, Gibbs singled out the specific programming slots featuring Glen Beck and Sean Hannity, both vocal critics of the administration saying: "You and I should watch sometime around 9 tonight or 5 this afternoon."
New York Times columnist Kate Phillips wondered "whether the administration's war-room strategy against Fox--giving rare interviews, writing blog posts attacking its claims about the president's policies-- represents the smartest approach."
Media critics, pundits and partisans on the left and right, she said are asking: "Why engage when it may serve only to boost the cable network's ratings? How is this approach by the administration any different from its predecessor's - who frequently shunned and criticized news organizations that it deemed opponents?"
David Gergen, a former White House aide and CNN commentator said: "I would think that what this reflects is a pent-up frustration or rage at the coverage they get, not only from Fox but elsewhere."
David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun said: "Whether or not you like Fox News, all of us in the press need to be concerned about the administration of President Barack Obama trying to 'punish' the cable news channel for its point of view."
Former White House deputy chief of staff and Fox News contributor Karl Rove, a close aide of former president George W. Bush, took a more personal dig at the president's handling of the situation.
Appearing on Fox News, he said: "I think this White House is dominated by Chicago-style politics, so if you don't like the questions that are being asked by Major Garrett or Wendell Goler or Chris Wallace, then you try and demonise Fox News."
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