Brendan Nyhan

Political scientist and media critic

Attacks on dissent against President Obama

October 2009: Time's Joe Klein suggests that some Fox News content "borders on sedition" and consists of "seditious lies." DNC spokesperson Brad Woodhouse states that "The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists - the Taliban and Hamas this morning - in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize," adding that Republicans have "proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn." This statement was echoed by Media Matters and Daily Kos.

December 2009: Time's Joe Klein describes a statement by Senator Tom Coburn that "There's a lot of people out there today who...will say, 'I give up on my government,' and rightly so" as "borderline sedition."

January 2010: Salon's Joan Walsh smears Republican criticism of President Obama as "un-American" and "traitorous" on MSNBC and asked if they "want to give aid and comfort to our enemies." Obama counterterrorism official John Brennan accuses Republican critics of the White House as "playing into Al Qaeda's strategic effort." New York Times columnist Frank Rich claims (without providing evidence) that John McCain "epitomizes the unpatriotic opposition" to Obama.

February 2010: Obama counterterrorism official John Brennan again attacks GOP critics of the president's security decisions, writing that "[p]olitically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda." Fox News host Geraldo Rivera describes former Vice President Dick Cheney as "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" and "encouraging another attack" for criticizing President Obama's foreign policy. Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter suggests Republican criticism of Obama "emboldens the terrorists" and will "[give] serious help to the terrorists."

April 2010: Time's Joe Klein says recent harsh criticism of the Obama administration "from people like Glenn Beck and to a certain extent Sarah Palin -- were right next -- right up close to being seditious."

May 2010: Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick describes harsh opposition to President Obama in Washington as "almost at the level of sedition."

July 2010: After RNC chair Michael Steele criticizes the war in Afghanistan, DNC spokesperson Brad Woodhouse states that Steele is "rooting for failure" and "undermin[ing] the morale of our troops."

February 2012: In a response to a report that was critical of US drone strikes in Pakistan, a "senior American counterterrorism official" suggested that critics of the US policy want to help Al Qaeda: "One must wonder why an effort that has so carefully gone after terrorists who plot to kill civilians has been subjected to so much misinformation. Let’s be under no illusions — there are a number of elements who would like nothing more than to malign these efforts and help Al Qaeda succeed."

March 2015: The New York Daily News brands the Republican senators who wrote an open letter to the leaders of Iran "TRAITORS" in a front-page headline.

August 2015: President Obama says Iranian hardliners opposed to the nuclear deal are "making common cause with the Republican caucus."

December 2015: The Washington Post's Dana Milbank writes that "the constant sniping at each other does nothing to defeat the Islamic State. As those old soldiers on the Mall taught us, victory comes from unity."

About Me

  • U9

    I am the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Duke University and have served as a RWJ Scholar in Health Policy Research and a faculty member in the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. I also tweet at @BrendanNyhan, contribute to The Upshot at The New York Times, and am a co-organizer of Bright Line Watch. Previously, I served as a media critic for Columbia Journalism Review, co-edited Spinsanity, a non-partisan watchdog of political spin, and co-authored All the President's Spin. For more, see my Dartmouth website.

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