Is the White House once again operating directly out of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals,” by trying to discredit the only cable news network that’s critical of Obama? Donald Sensing says yes:

Pick the target. Do not make the mistake of thinking that FoxNews Channel is the actual target. The bullseye target of this campaign is all the public media. FNC’s role in this much broader attack is the next two precepts.

Freeze it. This does not mean to shock the target into inactivity, but to fix a certain perception about the target in the minds of the broader community, in this case the media figures in general and the minds of the community (in this case, the whole nation is the community) as a whole.

The White House strategy here is twofold. First, to freeze FNC away from being thought of as just one of the universe of media outlets. White House Communications Director Anita Dunn opened this volley by declaring that FNC is not really a news organization, but the propaganda arm of the Republican party…

Personalize it. Attacking FNC puts a face, a personal identity on the White House’s enemy, but also serves to obscure the larger identity of the enemy. FNC is separated from the rest of the “real” media and personalized as a partisan, ideological arm of the president’s political opposition. The White House wants the other media to think that its fight is with FoxNews exclusively, hoping they won’t see that the real fight is with all media.

The other media may expect to be flattered as “real” reporters and news organizations who are actually the ones being “fair and balanced.” The more a White House reporters and editors toe the White House line, the greater access they will be granted, especially to power figures such as Rahm Emmanuel, David Axelrod and, ultimately, Barack Obama himself, whom we may expect to give a one-on-one interview with the biggest suckup reporter gaining Dunn’s favor. Reporters who don’t fall into place will discover they are being frozen out of access and will have to rely exclusively on press briefer Robert Gibbs, which is the kiss of death to a White House reporter.

Polarize it. The White House wants to set up an us-v-them dynamic among the White House press pool. Hence, “White House Urges Other Networks to Disregard Fox News.”

Concluding:

The White House is laying a foundation of future media relations that does two things. First, they are identifying, and most importantly trying to get all the media to identify, good and bad media coverage, both terms defined by the White House. Second, they are nudging each reporter and news organization to move further toward the “good” side by trying to drive a wedge between them and Fox News.

Glenn Reynolds doesn’t believe the strategy will work:

I don’t think the Alinsky playbook will work this time. But it’s telling that the White House feels otherwise.

I’m not so sure it won’t work. Unlike Fox News and other media outlets, the Obama administration is pretty ruthless. If you look at their rhetoric from the last couple of years, you realize that they knew they had to wage a (propaganda) war once in power – not doing so would mean they wouldn’t be able to “radically transform” America.

This means they got into this battle with the attitude that only victory was an acceptable outcome. Defeat against Fox means defeat for Obama’s bigger ideological agenda.

They thought this thing through and through, and they can act as if they have nothing to lose. Fox, on the other hand, isn’t as much concerned with an ideological agenda, as it is with ratings and, therefore, money. The longer the assault on Fox News continues, the more likely it is the network will suffer financially. Unlike Fox, the White House has pretty much unlimited funds. They can be unpopular for a year or so – as long as they win, eventually.