(Thumbnail image: Rolling Stone)

BY RICO BUSH

RAHM EMMANUEL: “It’s not a news organization, so much as that it has a perspective and that’s a different take.”

Nearly a year after making those comments, the White House is again offering harsh words for Fox News. Critics say President Obama is again waging war on the cable news outlet, by calling it "destructive to [America's] long-term growth."

The President’s comments come in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine. Mr. Obama says the news network offers opinionated journalism that plays into the hands of Republicans -- comparing it to “yellow journalism” of the past.

“I think Fox is part of that tradition — it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It's a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.”

Last year around this same time, Mr. Obama’s former Communications Director Anita Dunn publicly slammed Fox News on CNN.

“The reality of it is that Fox news often operates almost as the research arm or the communications arm of the republican party. ... What I think it’s fair to say about Fox and certainly the way we view is that it’s really is more a wing of the Republican party.”

After this latest criticism, a writer for the Baltimore Sun says the president is in the wrong.

“That is a pretty serious charge for the president of the United States to make against a media outlet. I wonder if Obama realizes that he carries the history and the weight of the presidency behind him when he say such things. ... after all, Fox News is winning with the viewer-voters of America, and Obama has been losing support for his party left and right.”

But a writer for Media Matters calls Fox News a political outlet, and says the president is acknowledging what many others believe.  That Fox News has always been biased and has never been “fair and balanced.”

“At this point, it is even hard for Fox to deny that it has an agenda. After all, this is the same news outlet that relentlessly propped up the tea party movement, allows its contributors to fundraise for conservative causes on air, [and] serves as a launching pad for countless GOP candidates' general election campaigns.”

The President’s Rolling Stone interview makes headlines, just one day after a poll rated Fox News as the most influential and popular news network among likely voters.  So what do you think?  Is the president right -- or wrong -- to go on the attack against Fox News?