News/Commentary

KJP dances around question on whether government should have the power to silence Fox News

March 11, 2023 | | Print Article

Between Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit against Fox News and Tucker Carlson’s recent release of previously unseen January 6 footage, the left seems determined to punish the conservative outlet, even if they have to drown in hypocrisy and trample on the Bill of Rights to do it.

And when it comes to hypocrisy, no one is more skilled at delivering the message than White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who has been very vocal, albeit intentionally vague, about the Biden administration’s desire to hold Fox News accountable for the unforgivable sin of disagreeing with it.


(Video: YouTube)

SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah asked Jean-Pierre in an interview for the Monday broadcast of “The Dean Obeidallah Show” if Congress shouldn’t simply expand the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) jurisdiction to include cable news so the government can shut Fox News down.

“Look, the FCC — the way the law is right now, it does not cover cable news,” Obeidallah told Jean-Pierre. “We all know that. Broadcast news, though, it does. It, it’s called ‘distortion.’ And… you have to show that they said something false on purpose, they knew was false, and they could be sanctioned.”

“They can lose their license on a network,” he said. “It doesn’t apply to cable.”

The host concedes that it would “take an act of Congress,” but wondered if Jean-Pierre thought “there’s any chance” the lawmakers could consider expanding “the FCC’s mandate” and give the agency the ability to treat Fox News the same way it treats ABC, CBS, and FOX networks.

“Because if not, why would Fox not just keep lying to the American public without any consequence?” Obeidallah asked. “I don’t know why they would stop this.”

KJP couldn’t come right out and cheer the idea, so she retreated to the passive-aggressive approach she routinely embraces in situations such as these.

“So, look, I have to be careful,” she told Obeidallah. “FCC is an independent agency, so we need to be careful here. But I get your point.”

“You know, look, I think everybody has a responsibility, if you call yourself a news organization, to tell the truth, you know, and I mean, that’s probably as far as I can go,” she added.

She then referenced her recent comments to MSNBC’s Alex Wagner, in which she suggested without saying that the White House doesn’t consider Fox News to be a real news channel.

“So, I’ll say this,” KJP told Wagner. “When you look at the depositions that have been out there recently, it even states from Fox News leadership that they do not see Tucker Carlson’s show as news or even truthful. That is coming from the Fox leadership, that’s not coming from me, that is coming from them.”

As for Carlson’s Jan. 6 reports, Jean-Pierre, without a shred of irony, claimed Carlson attacked the Constitution by airing what the Jan. 6 Committee failed to show.

“It was an attack on democracy,” she insisted. “It was an attack on our Constitution and you cannot whitewash that. Tucker Carlson cannot whitewash that. Anyone who doesn’t see with their own eyes what occurred cannot whitewash that. And so, the president’s going to stand with the police officers, he’s going to stand for truth. And clearly, that is not what Tucker Carlson believes in.”

Reading between the lines, as one is forced to do with the wishy-washy press. sec., Wagner deduced that it “sort of sounds like the White House doesn’t think Fox is a news organization.”

And Jean-Pierre wanted Obeidallah to understand that her response to Wagner was “close enough” to his point.

“And in the best way that I can answer it is, even Fox News leadership, in their depositions say, as we — as I was being asked about the Tucker Carlson show, that it’s not news or truthful,” she stammered along, careful not to make the mistake of speaking plainly. “And I think that tells you everything that you need to know.”

“I mean, when the leadership is saying that,” she concluded, “I think that tells you everything that you need to know and I’ll just leave it there.”

No word on whether Jean-Pierre feels CNN, MSNBC, and the rest of the mainstream media should also face an FCC shutdown for the exhausting list of lies they have knowingly pushed without shame or a sense of journalistic integrity for years about former President Donald Trump, the origins of COVID-19, the effectiveness of COVID vaccines, the “insurrection” at the Capitol, or the state of our nation’s economy.

And to quote the White House press secretary, “that tells you everything that you need to know.”

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles