I’d like to respond to your Nov. 5 Our View editorial, “White House must be open to critical analysis.” I agree with your title. I also agree with you that it would be better to stop the bickering, and listen to a subcommittee health care debate. Fox News has long been calling for the same thing. Obama promised an open, bipartisan health care debate during his campaign. It was to include doctors and nurses, hospital administrators, insurance companies, and other interested parties, and it was to be televised on C-SPAN. Instead of keeping that promise, the most transparent administration ever -- and some other Democrats secretly created a 2,000-page, $1.2 trillion heath care monster in a back room. Where is the promised change? It looks like Washington politics as usual to me.

But, I digress. Let’s return to the main focus of your column; the feud between the Obama administration and Fox News. Fox commentators like O’Reilly, Hannity and Beck are often critical of Obama. When they, or one of Fox’s news programs cover stories like the ACORN scandal, or the outing of “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones for his radical ties, the White House proclaims that “Fox is not a legitimate news organization, they’re just an arm of the GOP.” But, let’s look at the ACORN and Jones stories. If they truly only consisted of unfounded “Republican lies,” ACORN would still be doing business as usual, sucking in billions of stimulus pork dollars, while educating pimps on how best to break the law and cheat the government while using underage girls as sex workers. If the Fox stories had no substance, Jones would still be a czar. No other networks [and very few newspapers] seem to hold the Obama administration accountable for anything. Even before candidate Obama was nominated, most of the adoring mainstream media failed to ask him any tough questions, or confront him about troubling issues. This has continued to the present. But, at least the mainstream media have kept us up to speed on how Michelle keeps her arms looking so great, and how the president arrived at the fateful decision on naming the first family’s dog. The president is upset with Fox because they are not as compliant as the rest of his media kennel.

Fox News belongs to a press pool with ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN. When the “Pay Czar” Kenneth Feinberg was scheduled to speak to this pool in October, the Obama administration refused admission to Fox reporters, citing Fox’s bias (like CNN and NBC are completely free of bias), and that Fox was not a real news organization. To my great surprise and relief, the other pool members stood up, and refused to cover Feinberg unless Fox was allowed in too. This united front may represent a return to journalistic ethics and less biased coverage for these networks, and/or signal the beginning of the end of the media’s romance with Obama. Or, they may have simply realized that if this was allowed to happen to Fox, it might one day happen to them too. Regardless of their motives, the other networks did the right thing, and should be applauded.

This attempt to silence those who appear to Obama to be opponents is at best petty and vindictive. At worst, it’s a sinister attempt to muzzle the press. Obama says he’s “not losing any sleep” over the feud with Fox. Fox seems to be laughing it off, while watching their ratings climb ever higher. Kathleen Parker (and THB) is saying “let’s all just get along.” Cal Thomas is worried about this attack on the free press, as am I. We’re used to hearing stories like this about countries run by dictators. This should never happen in the United States of America. We have the mightiest military force in the history of the world protecting our liberties from without. But we need a fair and balanced press to keep us informed and to protect our liberties from within. Mr. President, the world’s most powerful man needs to have a thick skin to stand the heat; just ask any of your predecessors. If you can’t stand the heat, please get out of the kitchen.

Dale Weiss

Daleville resident