In his long-awaited endorsement of Joe Biden, President Barack Obama obliquely attacked Fox News, labeling it a major obstacle to getting a Democratic president elected in November.
“So our country’s future hangs on this election. And it won’t be easy. The other side has a massive war chest. The other side has a propaganda network with little regard for the truth,” Obama said in the video about Biden, his vice president from 2009-17. “On the other hand, pandemics have a way of cutting through a lot of noise and spin to remind us of what is real, and what is important.”
Although Obama did not mention Fox News by name, the implication was clear given the history between the network and the former president.
Early on in his administration, Obama’s animosity towards Fox News was made clear.
“We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent,” said Anita Dunn in a 2009 interview.
“As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave,” said Dunn, then the Obama White House communications director and now a senior adviser in Biden’s campaign.
In post-office interviews, Obama complained that Fox News “vilified” his presidency and that the network’s hostility damaged his approval ratings.
“In 2008, I was never subjected to the kind of concentrated vilification of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, the whole conservative-media ecosystem,” he said in 2017. “And so as a consequence, even for my first two years as a senator, I was polling at 70%.”
