For eight years former President Barack Obama was forced to deal with constant negative reporting from Fox News. While he's been mostly silent since leaving office, Obama decided to speak out against the network and their viewers during an interview with David Letterman.
Obama on Fox News
During the 2008 presidential election, it was made clear that Fox News was going to oppose whoever ended up winning the Democratic primary. While Hillary Clinton was the favorite, then Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was able to pull off the upset and challenge Republican nominee John McCain during the general election.
Led by names like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, Fox News went as far as prompting debunked conspiracy theories like "birtherism," though their efforts failed and Obama was elected to the White House. Over the course of the next eight years, the network aligned themselves as the top conservative media voice in the country, hitting Obama over nearly ever aspect of his administration. Fast forward to present day and the president has been low-key while Donald Trump as taken on the role of commander in chief, ironically with Fox as his biggest media supporter. As seen during the debut episode of Netflix's "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman" on January 12, Obama gave his thoughts on those who watch Fox News.
Former President @BarackObama resurfaced on Friday and took a shot at Fox News viewers, saying they’re “living on a different planet” than people who consume mainstream media. https://t.co/PGQ5GEW2KJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 13, 2018
Joining host David Letterman at City College of New York, Barack Obama discussed a variety of topics during the hour-long episode, while specifically taking a jab at Fox News and their viewers.
"One of the biggest challenges we have to our democracy is the degree to which we don’t share a common baseline of facts,” Obama went on to say. "If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than you are if you are listening to NPR," the former president added.
Fox viewers react
After the episode was posted to Netflix, Fox was quick to single out the quote and post it across their social media feeds, getting a predictably negative reaction on Twitter.
"Yea ...it is called earth and the rest of you watching 'mainstream media' are on Uranus!" one tweet read.
Yea ...it is called earth and the rest of you watching ”mainstream media” are on Uranus!
— Jodi's Journal (@JodiJournal) January 13, 2018
Who the heck is interested what Obama says or thinks. He did nothing for 8 years and now is begging for money to build a Library.
— Ray Karaliunas (@RayKaraliunas) January 13, 2018
Ha.
— SaucedbySally (@SaucedbySally) January 13, 2018
"Who the heck is interested what Obama says or thinks. He did nothing for 8 years and now is begging for money to build a Library," another Twitter user added. "So thankful to not be on the same planet as Obama and the libs," a follow-up tweet added.
He's right we are all living on the planet Earth and we are living in the reality world. Unlike the former Dem and his Snowflakes living in the world of make believe where everyone gets everything for free and no one has to ever leave their couch. So Sad if they only new !
— Sully (@IBTGOG) January 13, 2018
Keep doing what your doing Fox, Obama and Dems had cnn, cbs, nbc and abc plus Bloomberg and most of print media and they still lost.
— Gordon Pearson (@PearsonGord) January 13, 2018
It’s called living in reality on Earth - not living in La La Land on CNN.
— Craig Figgins (@cafiggins) January 13, 2018
"Ummmmm yep it’s called planet earth Gods whole world," another tweet added. "He's right we are all living on the planet Earth and we are living in the reality world.
Unlike the former Dem and his Snowflakes living in the world of make believe where everyone gets everything for free and no one has to ever leave their couch. So Sad if they only new!" an additional tweet noted.
