Blame game: The right-wing media on the government shutdown

The right-wing media may be loving the government shutdown, but that doesnt mean theyre willing to assign credit for it to Republicans. On the contrary, the overriding message to be taken from the rights coverage of the shutdown is that its an awesome liberation from Big Government, a political win-win for Republicans, and totally, entirely, without question all President Obamas fault.

Ann Coulter, for example, appeared on Sean Hannitys Fox News show and criticized the president for what she claimed were politically motivated park closings. From the Daily Caller:

[T]hey are trying to shut down privately-run areas, Coulter said. All of these privately run park areas that have not only never been shut down before, but take no federal money they pay money. They pay rent to the Treasury and theyre not losing money. Theyre not furloughed government workers. Were going to be paid. This is absolutely 100 percent political. Its like when Obama said, no White House tours for the sequester and then instantly uses Air Force One to fly his dog up to Marthas Vineyard. Normally I dont comment on things like that. There is enough other things to complain about hes doing this to punish people so that he can blame Republicans when its 100 percent the Democrats.

Coulter didnt focus entirely on the negative, however. She also took time to explain why the shutdown was a good thing for conservatives. After claiming herself to be usually opposed to shutdowns, Coulter gave her three reasons for why, this time, she welcomed one. From the Daily Caller:

Number one this abomination of Obamacare which is already a disaster, she continued. We should talk about that. Number two its Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and not Newt Gingrich running at this time. And number three and the most important we have part of the media now. There was no Fox News in 1995. Nobody was on the Internet. Talk radio wasnt as big as it is now. And if you look at the polls even with 100 percent of the non-Fox media pushing the idea that its Republicans, Republicans, Republicans in 1995 the gap between the public blaming Republicans versus Democrats was 23 points. This is according to the CBS poll. Its only nine points. Were talking more about Obamacare and it will go down even more.

For his part, Pat Buchanan weighed in on Sean Hannitys radio show by calling Obama a savage partisan who was enforcing a genuinely sadistic shutdown strategy. More from the Daily Caller:

I think even many of the presidents supporters, at least some of them, will candidly admit hes among the most partisan presidents weve ever had, Buchanan said. And the relationship between the Republican House and the Republicans in the Senate and the White House, and the fact he didnt meet with [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell for 18 months, I think that president is becoming quite frankly becoming increasingly a savage partisan. What he is doing in this debate and this argument, however, I think is genuinely sadistic.

To go out there yesterday and suggest, you know maybe were going to default and rattle the markets where they plunge today, to have his aides call over there at the Park Service and tell them not to let the veterans visit the World War II Memorial when theyre on honor flight their last chance in this life to meet and honor the guys with whom they served and to visit the memorial, which belongs to them what kind of mind would do that?

Like Coulter, Buchanan stated the shutdown was soon to prove to be to the Republicans benefit. In the Daily Callers words, Buchanan indicated Obama was playing into Republicans hands.

While both Buchanan and Coulter described the human costs of the shutdown in sympathetic terms, not everyone on the right was so full of fellow-feeling. Stuart Varney of Fox Business chose a different path, explaining that, when it comes to the more than 800,000 furloughed federal employees, he wanted to punish these people. From Media Matters:

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Blame game: The right-wing media on the government shutdown

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