Write Right

The quickest way to alienate people from one another is to deny their freedom of speech, so it is perplexing that the current administration seems determined to point fingers at Fox News Network in an effort to silence them. Sure, it's uncomfortable when young college kids come to Fox News to expose the organization that underwrote the President's election campaign, but if there are honest answers to the questions all journalists should ask, the administration has nothing to fear from Fox News Network -- or any other news outlet, including talk radio, to which the Fox News Network is being compared, as if that is somehow a put-down. People do talk -- behind your back if you won't let them talk to your face. Somehow, I would think that a president would prefer to know upfront what is being said, instead of being slammed with it in an expose ala Watergate. By trying to shut down the coverage of the ACORN scandal, the administration brought more attention to it and gave a cache to Fox News Network that was not the administration's intent.

People's perception is their reality, and if the public's perception is that the President of the United States speaks with a forked tongue, he'll lose his support faster than he can create his hit list. Therefore, it behooves the administration, including each and every one of the sycophants delivering the message for the President, to stop attacking the press that has been determined less than friendly than other networks. Remember the old saw to keep your allies close -- and your enemies closer.

Yesterday, for the first time, the other networks reminded the administration about the press's right not just to know what the White House tells them, but to analayze, synthesize, and evaluate what's going on in the world by refusing to go along when the administration overtly refused equal access to the Fox News Network during a press briefing. If the administration discriminates against the Fox News Network now, every other network is a potential target in the future -- and don't think that they don't all know that to be the case. Every citizen needs a voice, not just those who favor the current administration and its policies and practices. Trying to shut down the communication highway backlashes in a way that the administration does not seem to anticipate: when the press supports the President, life is good, but when the press turns against the President, life can be hell. Just ask Bush.

Mr. President, if you want Fox Network News off your back, open your front door and invite them in, and, playing off another President's famous admonition, if you can't stand the heat, be prepared to be grilled in the kitchen.