Obama campaign manager David Plouffe will be appearing on Fox News' "On the Record with Greta van Susteren," the network confirmed to The Swamp's Mark Silva.
The appearance comes in the midst of the war being waged by the administration against the cable news network, and will come just four days after Plouffe spoke negatively about Fox News on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Plouffe told "Meet the Press" moderator David Gregory that, in the last 60 days of the presidential campaign, Fox News "turned into a 24-hour propaganda channel for the McCain Campaign." He also cautioned not to overstate Fox News' influence, saying that its primetime audience — although #1 in cable news — represents less than 2% of the electorate (full transcript below).
However, on Thursday, he will address that primetime audience in pursuit of book sales. His book, The Audacity To Win, hits stores Tuesday, almost one year to the day after the campaign he oversaw came to a close.
Read an excerpt of the book at TIME.com.
Watch Plouffe's comments on Fox News from "Meet the Press" Sunday:
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Transcript:
GREGORY: ...Let's talk about the White House's decision to try to isolate Fox News. To declare a kind of war on Fox News. During the campaign, you all did business with Fox News. Didn't have-- problem with that. Why has that changed?
PLOUFFE: Well, we did business. Obviously-- it turned into a 24-hour propaganda channel for the McCain Campaign really in the last 60 days. So, listen, let's-- let's-- Fox News on their-- in the primetime, average viewers about two and a half million. 140 million people voted in the election. So, it's less than two percent of the electorates. So, I think sometimes we overstate, particularly in Washington the impact of this cable news culture.
But the fact that they're out there reporting that health care is gonna cost a trillion and a half dollars, you know, the President's at war with the C.I.A., the President must not be serious about terrorism. They're just out there. And it's not just in the evening. It's their morning show. The Today Show certainly doesn't make these kind of statements. And I think the danger is if what Fox is propagating out there becomes embraced by media, then there is a big (UNINTEL).
GREGORY: Why not engage them? Why not engage-- I mean, isn't-- I thought that this was a candidate who campaigned about staying above the fray.
PLOUFFE: Well, we-- listen, we went on Fox a lot during the campaign.
GREGORY: Right. But--
GREGORY: You disagree with what they're doing now?
PLOUFFE: No. I think you've seen the Administration have presence on Fox. I'm sure you will again. But the point is, I think, you have to put a spotlight on some of the irresponsibility coming out of that network. Even though the audience itself is fairly modest. If it-- if it creeps outside of that, it becomes an issue.