Ron Fournier

National Journal's Ron Fournier: Obama Is 'Lying About Lies' in an 'Orchestrated Deceit'
By Tom Blumer | November 5, 2013 | 1:48 PM EST

If there is to be a tidal wave of defenders of President Barack Obama's "it if it hasn't changed" revision to his original guarantee — "If you like your health insurance plan, you can keep your health insurance plan" — Ron Fournier (NewsBusters history here), who toiled at the Associated Press for 20 years and joined the National Journal several years ago, will not be among them.

In 2008, Fournier advocated "accountability journalism." When he took over as AP Washington bureau chief, he pushed for what was described as "a more hard-charging, opinion oriented style of writing" as a "new direction AP should take." Both were, in my view, thinly veiled attempts to inject more left-leaning bias into what news consumers to this day still mostly believe are "objective" wire service reports. With that demonstrated pedigree, perhaps it's a surprise that Fournier would be so vocal about Obama's attempt to "reinvent history" (HT Instapundit; bolds are mine):

Ron Fournier on Sebelius: ‘Maybe She Should Have Been Shown the Door’
By Noel Sheppard | October 22, 2013 | 10:03 AM EDT

As NewsBusters has been reporting, the Obama-loving media are clearly sickened by how the rollout of the President’s signature piece of legislation has gone.

Appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Tuesday, National Journal’s Ron Fournier excoriated Obama’s performance in the Rose Garden the previous day and said of Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “Maybe she should have been shown the door” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Fournier: Obama's 'Jihad Against the Press' Makes it More Likely We'll Have 'Dumb Wars'
By Noel Sheppard | May 23, 2013 | 10:07 AM EDT

With each passing day, it's becoming clearer and clearer that many of the current White House resident's followers in the media are really angered by his attack on the Associated Press and Fox News's James Rosen.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday, the National Journal's Ron Fournier said of this issue, "You can't make journalism a conspiracy...The irony here is that President Obama, by raising a jihad against the press, has now made it more likely that we’re going to have what he called 'dumb wars'" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC’s Finney On IRS Scandal: ‘Why Didn't Romney Make More Of A Big Deal Of It?’
By Jeffrey Meyer | May 22, 2013 | 8:29 PM EDT

You can take the flack out of the DNC but you can't take the DNC out of the flack, especially it's MSNBC regular and newly-minted weekend host Karen Finney, who today said that Mitt Romney should have made a bigger deal out of the IRS scandal on the campaign trail. The only problem, of course, is that no one knew about the IRS's malfeasance until well after the election.

On Wednesday's Now with Alex Wagner, Ms. Finney claimed that, "Everybody knew about this investigation long before the election. So, if they were that freaked out, why didn't Romney make more of a big deal of it during the election?" Fortunately for viewers at home, former AP reporter Ron Fournier, now with National Journal, corrected Finney's ridiculous speculation. [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]

Andrea Mitchell: IRS, AP Scandals Among 'Most Outrageous Excesses I've Seen'—But Bernstein Still Bats For Obama
By Mark Finkelstein | May 14, 2013 | 9:20 AM EDT

President Obama knows he's in trouble when Andrea Mitchell—Andrea Mitchell!—proclaims the IRS and AP scandals to be among "the most outrageous excesses I've seen" in all her years in journalism [which pre-date Watergate].  The strength of Mitchell's statement drew gasps from Scarborough and Brzezinski. Then Ron Fournier, former AP editor now with the National Journal, darkly described the White House being "consumed" if it turns out someone there or in the Obama campaign had been aware of the IRS targeting of conservative groups. It happened on Morning Joe today.

But hey, President Obama still has his hangers-on.  Take good old Carl Bernstein.  As we reported, on yesterday's Morning Joe Bernstein blathered that he "can't imagine" that President Obama coudl be involved in the IRS mess.  And there was Bernstein again today.  When Fournier spoke of consequences of White House or Obama campaign knowledge of the IRS targeting, Bernstein quickly burped out that "we have no evidence of that whatsoever."  Joe Scarborough had to remind the former Watergate reporter: "that's why you have investigations.  You know that." View the video after the jump.

National Journal’s Fournier Challenges MSNBC Panel Over Plan B for Pre-Teens
By Jeffrey Meyer | April 9, 2013 | 5:30 PM EDT

In what is a rare occurrence on MSNBC, one of the panelists actually challenged the conventional liberal view on one of its daytime shows.  The most recent example occurred on Now w/ Alex Wagner on April 9, when Ron Fournier of National Journal rejected the panel’s arguments that the Plan B pill should be available over-the-counter to all girls, regardless of age.

The segment began with host Alex Wagner seemingly perplexed at the Obama Administration’s initial position that girls under 17 should have to obtain a prescription for Plan B.  Wagner commented that:

National Journal's Fournier Blames NRA for Democrats Lacking Votes to Ban Guns
By Matt Vespa | March 20, 2013 | 5:47 PM EDT

In his March 20 piece, "Cowardly Congress, Ruthless NRA, and an Impotent Obama Conspire Against Assault-Weapons Ban" National Journal’s Ron Fournier attempts to shame 2nd Amendment-supporting Americans over Democrats killing an assault weapons ban before it had the chance to hit the Senate floor. 

Fournier groused that “the gun lobby deserves most of the blame for creating a political climate in which any regulation of firearms is viewed as an attack on the constitutional right to bear arms. This as much a financial issue to the NRA and its industry allies as it is a constitutional one.”  What climate is he talking about?  The liberal media have been behind Obama’s gun control agenda since December, using every opportunity possible to use the tragedy to press a gun control agenda.

What's more, while it's supposedly "ruthless" for the NRA, the nation's oldest civil rights organization, to defend the 2nd Amendment from encroachment, Fournier has no qualms about today's edition of the New York Daily News, which featured the victims of Sandy Hook in a ghoulish display of political exploitation. It’s advocacy journalism at its most craven. 

ABC Ignores White House Aide Calling Obama Budget Meetings 'A Joke'
By Kyle Drennen | March 13, 2013 | 2:53 PM EDT

While NBC and CBS both highlighted a quote from an anonymous senior White House official labeling President Obama's recent budget meetings with members of Congress "a joke," ABC managed to leave the controversial remark out of its coverage of the budget negotiations, with Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos even failing to ask the President about it in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

In a National Journal article posted Tuesday morning, Ron Fournier recounted: "'This is a joke. We're wasting the president's time and ours,' complained a senior White House official who was promised anonymity so he could speak frankly. 'I hope you all (in the media) are happy because we're doing it for you.'"

National Journal’s Ron Fournier Asks Why Obama Doesn’t Just Murder John Boehner
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 4, 2013 | 1:02 PM EST

**UPDATE** Earlier version of blog incorrectly stated that Ron Fournier had deleted tweets in question when in fact they are still on his account.

It appears as though the days of civility and integrity in journalism are long gone.  On March 1, National Journal’s Ron Fournier, formerly the Washington bureau chief at the Associated Press, took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction with government sequestration, suggesting that President Obama:

Can handle Bin laden, not Boehner?  He may be POTUS, but Obama incapable of “a Jedi mind meld.”

Fournier continued his violent rhetoric in a follow-up tweet, suggesting that, “Bin Laden didn’t compromise.  Handled him pretty well.”   

At National Journal, Fournier's New Role Involves 'Moving the Needle' in 'Reporting'
By Tom Blumer | November 28, 2012 | 10:32 AM EST

Well, at least he isn't shy about it.

According to Dylan Byers at Politico, the National Journal's Ron Fournier is going to "step down as editor-in-chief" and moving to "a role as editorial director." Before joining that publication in June 2010, Fournier worked at the Associated Press for a total of over 20 years in two different stints. In an email response to Politico yesterday, Fournier elaborated on the motivation behind his move (bolds are mine throughout this post):

National Journal's Fournier (Formerly of AP) Offers Novel Obama Excuse: 'Incumbent Debate Curse'
By Tom Blumer | October 4, 2012 | 1:45 AM EDT

Having seen the candidate the press corps so obviously favors perform poorly while his opponent shined, Ron Fournier at National Journal, an Associated Press alum, dove so deeply into excuse-making that I half expected him to claim that the dog ate President Obama's debate prep.

The primary culprit, according to the forlorn Fournier, is something over which Obama has no control, as seen in the following excerpt from the 11:30 p.m. version of his dispatch. The report has an accurate headline admitting to something Fournier wouldn't directly acknowledge, namely that Romney won the night (bolds and numbered tags are mine):

Former AP Writer Touts Obama's 'Searing,' 'Historically Poignant' Call for More Taxes
By Scott Whitlock | December 7, 2011 | 4:37 PM EST

Former Associated Press writer Ron Fournier on Tuesday praised Barack Obama's call for higher taxes as "one of his best, a searing and historically poignant account of the greatest challenge of the American experiment: How do we give every citizen, rich or poor, a path to the good life?"

Fournier, now with National Journal, only seemed to lament that the President didn't go far enough: "Borrowed or not, Obama's rhetoric was worthy of [Theodore Roosevelt], who declared in his 1910 'square deal' address that the 'right to regulate the use of wealth in the public interest is universally admitted.' But the comparison goes only so far: Obama's proposed solutions were a whisper of TR's agenda."