In a conversation with author Marilynne Robinson about faith and the role that fear plays in our politics, President Obama called Fox News by name for demonizing him and making the President seem scary.
The President said in a conversation published by The New York Review Of Books
It’s interesting, because we’re talking in Iowa; people always, I think, were surprised about me connecting with folks in small-town Iowa. And the reason I did was, first of all, I had the benefit that at the time nobody expected me to win. And so I wasn’t viewed through this prism of Fox News and conservative media, and making me scary. At the time, I didn’t seem scary, other than just having a funny name. I seemed young. Sometimes I look at my pictures from then and I say, I can’t believe anybody voted for me because I look like I’m twenty-five.
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But I’d go into these towns and everybody felt really familiar to me, because they reminded me of my grandparents and my mom and that attitude that you talk about. You saw all through the state—and I saw this when I was traveling through southern Illinois when I was first campaigning for the United States Senate—and I actually see it everywhere across the country.
Fox News and conservative media built an entire industry out of using Obama to scare Republicans. The warnings about Obama that Republicans see and hear in conservative media represent a daily drumbeat of paranoia for profit.
For example, just this past weekend conservative media ran headlines based on a story put out by the NRA that claimed that President Obama really does want to confiscate legally owned guns. Of course, they have zero evidence to back up their claims, and nothing that President Obama has done while in office suggests that he is about to come and take all the guns away, but the NRA needs to sell more guns, and conservatives get lots of clicks on their websites by demonizing Obama.
Who needs facts when there is fear to sell.
The Obama that Fox News constructed out of the imagination of Roger Ailes is nothing like the real man who occupies the Oval Office. The prism of fear that conservatives operate in is one of the main reasons for the nation’s partisan divisions and gridlock.
No one knows this better than Barack Obama. One of his greatest accomplishments has been moving the country forward while constantly doing battle with a conservative media machine that is only interested in selling fear for their own profit.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
