As President Donald Trump continues to resist his detractors’ calls to concede the presidential race to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, various left-leaning pundits are using their voices in an attempt to direct a prospective Biden administration.
Tommy Victor, a former aide to President Barack Obama and current co-host of Pod Save America, recently advised Biden to keep reporters for the Fox News Channel out of the loop, instead offering news tips and scoops to progressive news sources in an effort to “nurture” their respective audiences.
“Say it often”
Writing for his own left-leaning outlet Crooked Media, Vietor urged the former vice president to approach the frequently pro-Trump news channel “with eyes, not arms, wide open” and with a healthy dose of skepticism.
“Call Fox what it is: an extension of the Republican Party,” he wrote. “Say it often. Repetitive messaging works — just ask Lyin’ Ted and Low-Energy Jeb. Reject the absurd insistence that the network has a ‘real news’ division.”
Vietor further accused Fox News of peddling conspiracy theories on topics including climate change and COVID-19, advising Biden not to give the network additional legitimacy by treating it as he would other news sources.
“While highly paid Fox executives might be okay with pushing disinformation and calling it entertainment, and some journalists might continue to pretend Fox correspondents are just like them, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have to take Fox News to madrassa — by refusing to take them seriously as news professionals,” he insisted.
Instead, Vietor believes a Biden administration should focus on outlets that share his own particular ideological worldview, ostensibly without regard for the fact that this would potentially benefit his fledgling media site.
“Volcanic mashed-potato heap”
His disdain for Fox News is clear throughout his latest piece, though his reliance on left-leaning sources as evidence arguably undermined his broader point.
For example, he claimed that the network “spread misinformation on air every single day between January 1 and April 29, 2019,” but cited Media Matters, a clearly progressive organization, as a source.
Vietor further vilified individuals associated with the network, calling former host Bill O’Reilly a “volcanic mashed-potato heap of white resentment” as well as blaming current and former executives for getting extremist right-wing candidates elected in other countries.
Fox News was initially an obvious darling within the Trump administration, though the president’s affection for the channel has waned throughout his first term.
More than a week after the election, Trump took aim at Fox News for its sluggish ratings, tweeting: Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was [Fox News]!”
The post Former Obama aide advises Biden to embrace left-wing media, reject Fox News first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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