This column has a column topic section titled “pitchforks“, so ubiquitous has been President Barack Obama’s “Chicago Way” tactics to “clear the field” of opposition to his policies.

Obama has long practiced clear the Field politics as opposed to honest debate against opposition, going all the way back to the leaking of his senate opponent’s confidential sealed divorce records. The first such utterance specifically to unleashing a pitchfork wielding populist mob against opponents as President was this exchange with bank CEOs in April:

“These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.”

But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation, and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

Tomorrow night is an occasion celebrating the most famous wielder of a pitchfork, variously known by the appellations of Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub and, most famously, The Devil.

The most recent folks to be pricked by ObamaZebub’s pointed stick have been doctors, insurance companies, and, most famously the evil Television equivalent of evil Talk Radio, i.e. Fox News Channel. But why have the pitchforks been sicked on a non-broadcast cable news outlet that garners but a fraction of the audiences of the CBS, NBC and ABC (all in the tank for ObamaMessiah) news, individually and combined?

Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times recently risked sustaining steel-pointed, fork-shaped injuries when he reported:

By the following weekend, officials at the White House had decided that if anything, it was time to take the relationship to an even more confrontational level. The spur: Executives at other news organizations, including The New York Times, had publicly said that their newsrooms had not been fast enough in following stories that Fox News, to the administration’s chagrin, had been heavily covering through the summer and early fall — namely, past statements and affiliations of the White House adviser Van Jones that ultimately led to his resignation and questions surrounding the community activist group Acorn.

Read the whole column that reports on behind the scenes meetings between FNC’s Roger Ailes and White House adviser David Axelrod, as well as Obama’s meetings with his advisor’s and see if you can think of any President we have ever had with such thin skin and less confidence in his message?

I couldn’t.

The fear that the Drive-By media is being shamed into actually covering news that doesn’t fit their preferred story lines is welcome news for anyone that cares about this nation’s electorate being informed.

Examiner.com has never been in the tank for any politician. We don’t do drive-by hits. We examine the facts and report. And if we have a point of view, left or right, we say so.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published @ Examiner.com, where all verification links may be accessed.