How big of a crisis is the Obama administration for this country?

Well if you use the measure of Fox News ratings--a bigger crisis than the invasion of Iraq.

Fox’s programs have drawn record numbers of viewers this year. Through last week, Fox averaged 1.2 million viewers at any given time this year, up from one million viewers through the same time last year. Previously, the channel peaked in 2003, the year the Iraq war started, with nearly 1.1 million viewers.

The Obama administration seems to be doing their best to drive Fox's audience numbers, by actively attacking the news channel and attempting to isolate them.

The White House has limited administration members’ appearances on the network in recent weeks. In mid-September, when the White House booked Mr. Obama on a round robin of Sunday morning talk shows, it skipped Fox and called it an “ideological outlet,” leading the “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace to appear on Bill O’Reilly’s prime-time show and call the administration “the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.”

Ms. Dunn called that remark juvenile and stressed that administration officials would still talk to Fox, and that Mr. Obama was likely to be interviewed on the network in the future. But, she added, “we’re not going to legitimize them as a news organization.”

Actually, if Dan Rather's standard of speaking "truth to power" is the measure of journalistic legitimacy and integrity, then Fox appears to have done a great job of legitimizing itself. Obama on the other hand, validates the perception of his administration as a collection of preening narcissists by its jejune snit over Fox's perfectly normal coverage.

Yes--perfectly normal, because the problem lies not with Fox, but rather with all the other news organizations who've adopted the role of American Pravdas.

I'm frankly mystified by the administration's concern with Fox. From my perspective, their hold on the media is unprecedented. CNN has abandoned its pretense of even-handedness to embrace the MSNBC dynamic of Democrat party organ. They should be deliriously happy they get so much positive coverage. If George W. Bush was in Obama's position, screwing up the country this badly, Katey Couric would be burning him in effigy on the nightly news.

The irony here is Fox's ratings are largely the result of the lack of diversity in media coverage. There simply is no middle ground anymore. The administration and its media allies have created the George Bush world they criticized so relentlessly--you are either with us, or against us.

Since Americans who believe in the traditional values of freedom and self-reliance can't be with the socialist-fascists, then we find ourselves having to making common cause with Fox News...