Obama Goes On Fox

Well, Obama will be making an appearance on Fox News Sunday. It's already been taped; it will air tomorrow.

Obama has said he would use his Fox appearance to "take Fox on." We'll see: if he gave better than he got, it may have been a useful exercise. But it's unlikely to happen that way, because Fox controls the interviewer, the cameras, the microphones, the questions, the editing process, the edited clips that are shown ad nauseam afterwards, and the "analysts" to probe and misrepresent and be sanctimoniously outraged at those clips for days afterwards. Going on Fox News to criticize the shoddy journalism of Fox News is like jumping into a rattlesnake pit to yell at the snakes: they're snakes, damn it. They don't give a damn what you say. They don't even have ears.

Lemme just quote Chris Wallace's pronouncement, just so you can get the feel for what Fair 'N Balanced looks like:

The "Obama Watch" will finally stop this weekend when Senator Barack Obama sits down with us for an exclusive "FOX News Sunday" interview.

After a double-digit loss in Pennsylvania, how will the Senator gain back momentum in the remaining contests? While he is ahead in pledged delegates, Senator Clinton is counting on the support of the superdelegates. With such a long Democratic primary season, how does Senator Obama feel this is affecting his party and does he see the contest continuing all the way to the Democratic convention? We'll ask this and much more when we sit down with Senator Obama, only on "FOX News Sunday."

Then, the presidential nomination battle turns to Indiana as the next test of who is most electable in November. Joining us to discuss will be Brit Hume, Washington managing editor of FOX News;Mara Liasson of National Public Radio; Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, and Juan Williams of National Public Radio.

So basically, Chris Wallace really wants to know whether Barack Obama is screwed by losing one state, and is tremendously interested in what injuries to the Democrats may be gleaned from it, and afterwards he will sit down with the TREMENDOUSLY FAIR 'N BALANCED, DAMMIT panel of Brit Hume, Mara Liasson, Bill Kristol and Juan Williams to discuss Obama's performance. I'm sure all that will go off to Obama's advantage, don't you think?

Admirably, Obama has stayed off Wallace's wankfest for two years. A pity it couldn't last another six months or so.

There are obviously a variety of reasons not to do this. Among the top reasons is that Fox News is not serious goddamn news, and Chris Wallace is not a serious goddamn newsman. He is a hack. If you want evidence that he is a hack, you need look no farther than the ridiculous daily "Obama Watch" Wallace and Fox News kept: a very serious, professional schoolyard pout to try to goad Obama into appearing where they wanted him to appear. Not being a Fox viewer, I don't know if the "Obama Watch" graphic was accompanied by Wallace making little buk-buk chicken noises or Wallace flapping his arms; perhaps that was only the behind-the-scenes version.

Now, If I was anywhere near a presidential campaign, I would freeze out a program that did such a juvenile "watch" just out of a sense of good, sensible spite. It quite clearly looks like a presidential candidate is caving to the shoddy network, rather than the network being granted anything special; in any event, though, there's no upside in appearing on a network specifically devoted to the election of Republicans, much less one that lies about it with declarations of their own "balance". The attempt to deny Fox News significant Democratic interviews is not in fact based on spite, but on basic self-interest among non-conservatives: if Fox finds that their access to half of the political spectrum cut off, then they may have to think harder about their particular brand of yellow journalism.

As it is, Fox is currently touting how they think the interview went, and Chris Wallace is as pleased as punch...

[I]t was a very friendly exchange. I think we asked them questions that Fox viewers would want to hear and I think they'll be interested in his answers, but he, he very much clearly wants to reach out to the kind of moderate conservative Democrats and Republicans who watch Fox and I think, as I say, very much wants to get away from any sense that he's a creature or a captive of the left. That was very clear throughout his more than half an hour we sat down and talked to him.

Well, there's a surprise. The interview hasn't even run yet, and Fox has decided how they're going to frame it: as Obama distancing himself from his base, determined not to be "a captive of the left". If Obama ripped them a new orifice, like Clinton once did in an interview, they would make that the story. If he was polite instead, then the story becomes Obama rejecting his crazy base in favor of good, wholesome "moderates", defined as people "who watch Fox".

For Fox News, every interview is about Fox News.

Obama going on Fox is a mistake. Obama going on Fox after they whined like schoolchildren is a bigger mistake. We'll see what the outcome is: if it turns out he does well, then he's a better politician than even his most ardent fans have believed. If he doesn't... well, maybe it will at least help to convince others that there is no upside in Democrats talking to an all-Republican, all-conservative fake "News" channel.