On the Oct. 22 broadcast of Fox News Channel's "Special Report," host Bret Baier revealed a White House pool announcement was offering Kenneth Feinberg, the "Special Master for Compensation," better known as the White House "pay czar" for interviews - all except for one network - Fox News.More here.
[...]The press pool is comprised of the five major TV news organizations - CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News. However, according to Baier, the other members declined to participate unless Fox News was included.
"When they put out that message, they specified that all members of the pool were welcome except Fox News," Baier said. "Well the other members of the TV pool said, ‘Well we're not going to do the interview unless Fox News is included."
Baier also pointed out how disproportionate the White House press pool's access to the president has been. According to the "Special Report" host, NBC has conducted 12 interviews, CBS with 11 interviews, ABC conducting nine interviews and CNN with seven interviews. But Fox News - a total of two interviews.
And here:
It's amazing we are in the position we are. We have a President who is more interested in talking to murders around the world but is afraid to face a reporter who isn't enthralled with the crease of his pants.
Wonderful.
And even the WaPo's Ruth Marcus says:
There’s only one thing dumber than picking a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel -- picking a fight with people who don’t even have to buy ink. The Obama administration’s war on Fox News is dumb on multiple levels. It makes the White House look weak, unable to take Harry Truman’s advice and just deal with the heat. It makes the White House look small, dragged down to the level of Glenn Beck. It makes the White House look childish and petty at best, and it has a distinct Nixonian -- Agnewesque? -- aroma at worst. It is a self-defeating trifecta: it distracts attention from the Obama administration’s substantive message; it serves to help Fox, not punish it, by driving up ratings; and it deprives the White House, to the extent it refuses to provide administration officials to appear on the cable network, of access to an audience that is, in fact, broader than hard-core Obama haters.
It is kind of amusing that she talks about being brought 'down' to the level of Glenn Beck- who isn't a journalist, he's a commentator, and yet he was waaaaay ahead of the WaPo on the Van Jones and ACORN stories, among others.
And in passing on the information that the President personally complained about Fox News in a recent behind the scenes meeting with 'journalists' like 'my leg is tingling and that's an objective measure of His Obamaness's wonderfullicious goodness' Olberman, Maddow, et all, Allahpundit points out that
Dude, Glenn Beck’s own fans don’t obsess about him this much. How do we put The One’s mind at ease here? Taxpayer-funded psychotherapy? A week off at Camp David? A security blanket, perhaps emblazoned with the “O” logo that he loves so much?
The Whitehouse is certainly not being remotely subtle here- note Axlerod's thickly obvious flattery here:
This is very heavy handed. I wonder why the Whitehouse thought the rest of the press would go along with him in his thin-skinned and rather shrill attempt to shut down the only news organization that holds him accountable? Hmmmm.
And it does not bode well that the FCC voted to begin working on so-called 'net neutrality' rules. Pin It
