Conservative MediaConservative media critics are pushing bank on President Barack Obama’s suggestion that Republicans would most likely work with the administration if they were not punished on Fox News and other media outlets for doing so. The president made the remarks in an interview with the New Republic. He was describing the difficulties in creating bipartisan legislation.

President Obama’s criticism of some media outlets came after he struggled to come up with a comprehensive fiscal deal and faced resistance over his new gun-control plans. Bob Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, said that Obama is just using an old Democratic Party strategy of saying that centrists would go along if those conservatives don’t beat them up.

Columnist Ben Shapiro said President Obama was challenging certain media outlets since the start of his first term in office. He added that the president has gone after Rush Limbaugh in the past and talked about starting boycotts.

President Obama argued in the interview that House Speaker John Boehner wanted to make a deal on the recent fiscal issues but couldn’t because he would be attacked for compromising and working with the president. President Obama claimed that the more left-leaning media outlets recognize that compromise is not a dirty word.

The president suggested that he, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are more willing than Republican leaders to buck their party principles to get stuff done. The last time President Obama criticized Fox News was on July 2012 during a campaign event in Virginia Beach.

Rich Noyes, research director for the Media Research Center, said that media helped shape the political environment of the nation. Democrats object conservative media while liberal news outlets try to punish conservatives on their views on cutting spending and views on gun control.