Fox News Desperation Grows: As Romney’s Prospects Decay, Anti-Obama Attacks Accelerate

It must be frustrating to be a Fox News producer or editor these days knowing that your professional mission is to advance the campaign of Mitt Romney for president, while Romney himself seems to be working as hard as he can to sabotage any possibility of victory.

Last week was widely considered to be disastrous for the Romney campaign, but what is most notable about the Romney Ticket’s Series of Unfortunate Events is that they were all the fault of Romney’s own missteps. Which makes it all the more curious that he appears to be so completely clueless as to his shortcomings. He told an interviewer that there is not a thing wrong with his excellent campaign and that it doesn’t require any turnaround:

Mitt Romney Campaign Turnaround

Someone must not have conveyed that positive message to the rest of Romney’s staff. As Rachel Maddow noted last night, Romney’s campaign has undergone a steady stream of makeovers, resets, retoolings, reboots, and recasting of messages:

Rachel Maddow Resets

So what does poor Fox News do when faced with such a rolling calamity (as conservative columnist Peggy Noonan described Romney’s campaign)? Well, they litter their reporting with nothing but anti-Obama stories in a desperate attempt to unlevel the playing field and boost Romney’s fading prospects. Yesterday on the Fox News web site the following stories appeared:

  • ’60 Minutes’ interview causes headache for White House
  • Libya latest example of Obama administration downplaying initial reports of terror?
  • Obama heads for taping of ‘The View,’ as UN summit begins
  • Romney accuses Obama of trying to ‘fool’ voters
  • Ryan: President Obama will let Medicare go belly up.
  • Ryan: If Obama ‘can’t change Washington’ we need to change presidents
  • Obama admits some ads go ‘overboard,’ Romney defends campaign in dueling interviews
  • Obama Shifts Further on Libya Strike, Says Attack Not ‘Just a Mob Action’
  • White House: Obama Too Busy for Side Meetings at UN
  • White House pressed on why Obama UN itinerary doesn’t include meetings with world leaders

That’s ten stories with obviously anti-Obama spin. And to make this unfair and unbalanced presentation of the “news” all the more apparent, there was not even one story that similarly treated Romney. Not one. Zero. Zilch. In fact there wasn’t even a single story wherein Romney was the lede. That must be because even Fox couldn’t find anything positive to say about his campaign. Therefore, they stuck to burying Obama in an avalanche of mud.

Meanwhile, on the air at Fox News, they approached their political reporting with a peculiar slant. Just about every story was framed along the lines of “What Can Romney Do To Turn Things Around?” Or “How Will Romney Respond To All The Negative Media?” Or this bit of breaking news: “Gov. Romney Revs Up 2012 Campaign.”

Bret Baier Fox News

These are characteristic representations of Fox News’ partisan perspective. They would, of course, never lead off with a headline like “What Can Obama Do To Maintain His Lead?” The Pro-Romney editorializing at Fox News could not be more transparent. They have gone into overdrive as they recognize the near futility of pulling Romney’s ass out of the fire of his own making. It is almost painful to watch them squirming like worms on a hot sidewalk who know that it’s just a matter of time before they become so desiccated they can no longer wriggle in the sun.

The desperation of Fox News is manifest in their manic hyperactivity to pile on Obama, while virtually ignoring the hapless misadventures of Mitt & Co. And this is the sort of misbehavior that we can expect to increase in the few weeks left before the election. At this point does anyone expect to see any future headlines from Fox praising Obama’s speech at the United Nations or declaring him the winner of a debate? Don’t bet on it.

As the days grow short, so will Fox’s fuse on their rhetorical bombs. The good news is that no one but Fox’s glassy-eyed disciples will ever know there was an explosion because, more and more, Fox’s influence is confined to an insular group of fanatics who can still tolerate their brand of dishonest and disreputable pseudo-journalism.

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21 thoughts on “Fox News Desperation Grows: As Romney’s Prospects Decay, Anti-Obama Attacks Accelerate

  1. The despration is palpable. Wait until the debates. It will be worse than Palin’s “Ya know, I probably won;t answer your questions the why ya think ah should, in fact I won’t answer them at all because I want to talk to therill American people about energy independence and as Governor of Alaska, I KNOW how to make America independent of that there furren oil because God blessed Alaska will all the energy this nation will ever need.” Wink wink.
    No Mitt will not bother to answer any questions either, because Mr. Entitled doesn’t think voters are smart enough to understand his vision of America, so he’s not telling. Just trust him. He and Paulie have huge plans that will create millions of jobs, and they have awesome plans to make sure our seniors never worry about SS and Medicare again, and they have totally wonderful plans to make America respected again around the world, but trust him, it will be grat. A baboon makes more sense than Romney, and soon the entire country will have a one on one comparison of his secret plans versus the incumbant who has been shackled by the GOP Congress. Get the popcorn ready.

  2. I’m always facinated by how quickly an Obama lover will go to the excuse of “it’s the GOP Congress fault” for how lame this president has been. If I recall, Bill Clinton had both a republican house AND senate and got quite a bit done. What’s Mr. Obama’s excuse? Can you please elaborate? Yes, Mitt Romney is not a stellar candidate, but you don’t really care about that as you would never have considered a good GOP candidate either. I’ve at least voted for a democratic presidential candidate when the GOP incumbent was bad.
    Also, had this president done a better job in his first couple years, he would probably still have a friendly congress as he had for the first 2 years of his presidency – stop wasting time with excuses.

    • The GOPs hatred for Obama was never paralleled during Clintons time as president. The republican party has moved so far to the right that they are unrecognizable from the party of Reagan. If they were in any other developed country they would be no more than a fringe party.

      Regardless of this, the real problem with American politics is the First past the post voting system. This cannot be stated enough.

    • Racist Republicans wanted to impede all sort of progress as Obama’s success would mean the destruction of the Republican party. If you haven’t forgotten, a Republican presidency destroyed Clinton’s surplus, started 2 wars, began the biggest job loss chain in US history, dropped us into a recession, and leveled America’s image across the world. Bushy wasn’t the most elegant speaker out there…

      • And the other list? Surely there is one. I know because I’ve seen it.

        So much for selective information.

    • The GOP learned & changed tactics compared to the Clinton years. They learned from pushing the impeachment proceedings. They learned not to give an inch on any position – even one right for the country – that gives the opposition good press. Holding a bad position and compromising to make a worse policy gives them better talking points at the election.

      Obama putting his weight behind giving states more freedom in welfare spending is a case in point. It’s a R idea, it’s good for the country, he backed it, and he got _crucified_ for being firm on enforcing welfare.

    • I’m always amused watching desperate rightwingers come here to defend the indefensible as if, other than scapegoating their fury on the enemy, there were some purpose to be served.

      In fact, it’s more than amusement. It’s schadenfreude.

    • As has been pointed out, President Clinton never had anyone saying “our number one goal is to ensure that President Obama only has one term.”

      As for, “Yes, Mitt Romney is not a stellar candidate, but you don’t really care about that as you would never have considered a good GOP candidate either.” That is absolutely not true. The Republican party had a smart candidate who was very knowledgeable on foreign policy and seemed willing to negotiate in Jon Huntsman. I could’ve voted for him.

      • Gary Johnson was another respectable Republican. But Johnson and Huntsman (both two-term GOP governors) were blocked from participating in most of the GOP debates, even while goofballs like Cain and Bachmann were in every one. That tells the tale of today’s insane Republican Party.

        • That’s too bad about Huntsman. I voted for him in the primary. He had more competence and sanity in his little finger than Bachmann has in her whole family.

          Huntsman did get to participate in the early debates =- he was just out early, after not placing well in new Hampshire.

    • Steve, trying pulling your head out of your ass. Something tells me you’ve never ONCE voted Democratic. But hey, if I were you, I’d be embarrassed to be a Republican too.

    • It’s called the filibuster and it’s used to stop everything from budgets to jobs bill for vets. The republican party is the most unAmerican group of people this country has ever created. Why don’t you know your party is filibustering everything? Are you….?

      1) Dumb?
      2) Uninformed?
      3) Misinfored?
      4) Don’t do facts?
      5) All of the above.

  3. “Romney Ticket’s Series of Unfortunate Events” was very clever, I must admit. Give the person responsible a raise.

  4. Yes, Bill Clinton had a republican congress but they didn’t deny their own policy positions for political gain nor did they sabotage the American people for their own gain. I have never seen so much racial hate in American politics until PBO election to the WH. Fox News has one mission only just like the republican congress to make sure and follow Rush Limbaugh direction and that was to make Obama a one term president at all cost. The only people suffer is the American people. The republicans never counted on the public being smart enough to see right through them.

  5. So basically their strategy is “Vote for Romney: He’s not Obama”.

  6. Fox News has become the National Enquirer of News reporting. They need only rumor and innuendo to televise a full blown story about Obama. It’s disgusting

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