Why Obama Went To Fox
With Robert Gibbs appearing on "Fox News Sunday" and Timothy Geithner stopping by Fox Business yesterday, it's clear that top administration officials are willing to engage the much-criticized network a lot more these days.
Now tonight, President Obama sits down for an exclusive interview on "Special Report" as the health care debate wages and a vote's expected. The upcoming Fox interview was a topic of discussion on -- you guessed it -- Fox.
On "The O'Reilly Factor, Brit Hume said that Obama's decision to appear on Fox "tells you for sure, if you didn't know it already, they haven't got the votes."
Bill O'Reilly responded that 'it's a smart move to do it because there a lot of independents who watch" the network.
The White House believes that some of Fox's audience may be swayed by the president. Gibbs, when asked Tuesday if Obama might be able to change any minds, said it was "certainly worth a shot." And this morning, a White House official further explained the decision further to Playbook:
“Many of the falsehoods and myths about health reform gained traction with Glenn Beck and others on FOX, so the President is returning to the scene of the crime to make the final sale. As we have said, we will work with Fox where it serves our communications interests, and this does.”
This isn't the first time that Obama has headed to Fox at a tough political moment, when it might prove advantageous to reach a broad swath of cable news viewers, and not just those already supporting his agenda.
Indeed, Obama didn't give a full interview to Fox from February 2007, when he announced his candidacy, until January 2008 -- that long-awaited interview taking place the morning after his upset loss in the New Hampshire primary.
Sources: Fox News, Mediaite, Politico, Youtube
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