Axelrod: FOX isn't a real news organization

It's good to see the White House fighting back against the right-wing noise machine.

“The only argument that Anita was making is that they are not really a news organization, if you watch even its not even their commentators, but a lot of their news program. It’s really not news, it’s pushing a point of view and the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours, ought not to treat them that way. And we’re not going to treat them that way, we’re going to appear on their shows and participate, but understanding that they represent a point of view.”

FOX poses its own danger - at some point, tell enough people on the fringe enough times that the angry black man is a communist hell-bent on repeating Nazi Germany, and someone not playing with a full deck is likely to eventually to respond with violence. But there's a great issue here. Telling the rest of the media not to follow FOX's example. FOX likes to be sensational. And it works, in terms of getting viewers. Glenn Beck is a disturbed extremist, but to the core of what's left of the GOP, he is them. The rest of the media may learn the lesson that extremism sells. And if they do, our country will be in serious trouble. The Obama administration took a step this week towards saving the country from people who want to win at all costs, or at least bring the rest of us down with them.