Former President Barack Obama said on Friday that those who watch Fox News are ‘living on a different planet’ than those who get their information from other sources.
Obama made the remarks during an interview with David Letterman on his new show which began streaming on Netflix on Friday.
The former late night host alluded to President Donald Trump when he asked Obama about what he considered a more dangerous threat to democracy – the president’s attacks on the media or a foreign power trying to influence the results of an election.
‘What the Russians exploited – but it was already here – is we are operating in completely different universes,’ the former president said.
‘One of the biggest challenges we have to our democracy is the degree to which we don’t share a common baseline of facts.
‘If you watch Fox News, you are living on a different planet than you are if you are listening to NPR.’
Former President Barack Obama said on Friday that those who watch Fox News are ‘living on a different planet’ than those who get their information from other sources
Obama made the remarks during an interview with David Letterman on his new show which began streaming on Netflix on Friday
The interview was taped before an audience at City College of New York in Manhattan, according to Fox News.
Obama’s comments about Fox News got an applause from those who attended.
Letterman’s interview with Obama marked the former president’s first television talk show appearance since he left office in January 2017.
Obama never mentioned Trump by name during his talk with Letterman, though he did say that the presidency was about influencing people’s thinking.
‘One of the things that Michelle figured out, in some ways faster than I did – was part of your ability to lead the country doesn’t have to do with legislation, doesn’t have to do with regulations, it has to do with shaping attitudes, shaping culture, increasing awareness,’ Obama said.
The former president has had a contentious relationship with Rupert Murdoch’s right-leaning cable network.
During Obama’s first year in office, one of his aides told The New York Times that the administration would treat Fox News ‘the way we would treat an opponent.’
That same year, Obama told CNBC that Fox News was ‘entirely devoted to attacking my administration.’
The former president has had a contentious relationship with Rupert Murdoch’s right-leaning cable network. He is seen above in 2014 giving an interview to then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly
When Obama was campaigning for the Democratic nomination in 2007, then-Fox News chief Roger Ailes joked that ‘Barack Obama is on the move’ when he was asked a question about Osama bin Laden.
In 2010, Obama’s Treasury Department tried to exclude Fox News from a round of media interviews with a top official.
That provoked a backlash by other media organizations who banded together to boycott the interviews unless Fox News was permitted to participate.
Fox News has also given a platform to Trump and others who have floated the conspiracy that Obama was not born in the United States, according to Mediaite.
The issue of the president’s relationship with the media has been center-stage during the Trump presidency.
Trump has frequently attacked other news organizations besides Fox.
He has been a particularly vocal critic of CNN, which he often calls ‘fake news.’