As Israel and other countries look to the USA for leadership, Obama and his White House team are proving thin-skinned in their tolerance of local criticism. 

This is exemplified in their efforts to dismiss Fox News as a legitimate media outlet and bar a Fox representative from interviewing a White House officer.  Pleasingly, other major media refused to allow the White House to have its way with Fox, and the White House backed down. Jay Leno picked up on the brouhaha.

Equally disturbing was the recent exchange where Ken Rudan from National Public Radio firstly appropriately criticised the White House for seeming to have an “enemy list” that mirrored a Nixon enemy list (which others had also talked about 1, 2 but then abruptly issued an abject apology for being critical of Obama’s team. 

Rudan’s mouselike apology (”I made a boneheaded mistake yesterday, during the Political Junkie segment on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, one that I’d like to correct right away)” is shown here with shades of this.  

Plenty of comments blasted him for his presumed caving in to external pressure.  e.g. And as a devoted NPR listener (and contributor) I thought it was independent? Silly me! Ken Rudin ought to stand behind what he says, or get off the air;  AND …………….  Good heavens…such a cringing recantation from a completely reasonable analysis! What happened? Did the Thought Police of the Left descend? Nixon’s thin-skinned hatred of all criticism from the media led directly to his other excesses, and your comparison was telling, valid, persuasive….and a welcome respite from the toadying media defense of President Obama’s shaky leadership thus far. Utter disrespect for opposing views is insufferable whether it comes from Right or Left. At least, for one, brief, shining moment, an NPR commentator had the integrity to say so.”