Obama administration attempts to cold shoulder Fox News

[RJT]

I can't believe this isn't posted yet

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...zar-interview/

The Obama administration on Thursday failed in its attempt to exclude Fox News from participating in an interview of an administration official, as Republicans on Capitol Hill stepped up their criticism of the hardball tactics employed by the White House.

The Treasury Department on Thursday tried to make "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg available for interviews to every member of the network pool except Fox News. The pool is the five-network rotation that for decades has shared the costs and duties of daily coverage of the presidency and other Washington institutions.

But the Washington bureau chiefs of the five TV networks consulted and decided that none of their reporters would interview Feinberg unless Fox News was included. The pool informed Treasury that Fox News, as a member of the network pool, could not be excluded from such interviews under the rules of the pool.

The administration relented, making Feinberg available for all five pool members and Bloomberg TV.

The pushback came after White House senior adviser David Axelrod told ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday that Fox News is not a real news organization and other news networks "ought not to treat them that way."

Media analysts cheered the decision to boycott the Feinberg interview unless Fox News was included, saying the administration's gambit was taking its feud with Fox News too far. President Obama has already declined to go on "Fox News Sunday," even while appearing on the other Sunday shows.

"I'm really cheered by the other members saying "No, if Fox can't be part of it, we won't be part of it,'" said Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik, calling the move to limit Feinberg's availability "outrageous."

"What it's really about to me is the Executive Branch of the government trying to tell the press how it should behave. I mean, this democracy -- we know this -- only works with a free and unfettered press to provide information," he said.

Several top White House advisers have appeared on other news channels to criticize Fox News' coverage of the administration, dismiss the network as the mouthpiece of the Republican Party and urge other news organizations not to treat Fox News as a legitimate news network.

On Wednesday, Obama, speaking publicly for the first time about his administration's portrayal of Fox News as illegitimate, said he's not "losing sleep" over the controversy.

"I think that what our advisers simply said is, is that we are going to take media as it comes," Obama said when asked about his advisers targeting the network openly. "And if media is operating, basically, as a talk radio format, then that's one thing. And if it's operating as a news outlet, then that's another. But it's not something I'm losing a lot of sleep over."

Obama's comments also came after he met Monday with political commentators Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC; Eugene Robinson and E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post; Ron Brownstein of the National Journal; John Dickerson of Slate; Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd and Bob Herbert of the New York Times; Jerry Seib of the Wall Street Journal, Gloria Borger of CNN and U.S. News and World Report, and Gwen Ifill of PBS.

House Republican leaders rushed to the defense of conservative commentators Thursday after the president's comments.

Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said conservative commentators speak more for Americans than the national media outlets that have targeted them for criticism.

"Goaded on by a White House increasingly intolerant of criticism, lately the national media has taken aim at conservative commentators in radio and television," the Indiana Republican said on the House floor. "Suggesting that they only speak for a small group of activists and even suggesting in one report today that Republicans in Washington are 'worried about their electoral effect.' Well, that's hogwash."

The bigger shock is the other news organizations standing up for Fox, that the White House tried this doesn't surprise me at all....

But imagine if Bush had tried this with CNN or NBC/MSNBC...man we'd all be deaf with the howls that'd have ensued

[PocketProtector]

Alinsky 101 the full monty

[MrUgly]

Can we take a step back a second? Don't look at this from the "Obama isn't who I want" view, look at the 10,000 foot view. We have a Government that thinks a media outlet is not worthy to receive news. This is an attempt at pure censorship. Does anyone else feel we are looking over a precipice?

I can assure you that at some point, Pres. Bush wanted to drop everyone at NBC down a silo and close the doors. But the President does not operate in a vacuum. He has a staff of competent, intelligent people that work at implementing his directives. Am I to understand that no one stood up and said "Hey guys, maybe this isn't a good idea." More to the point, that no one else took him seriously?

Yes, the other media outlets stood up for Fox, but make no mistake: it had nothing to do with supporting Fox and their duty to report the truth; it had everything to do with the other outlets wondering if they could get tossed from the gravy train. We froth about the Second Amendment. We wax loquacious if we even get a whiff of someone wanting to abridge our rights. What the current administration is attempting is *WRONG*. More than a gun ban, it's evil. It is an attempt to suppress a part of the Fourth Estate for ideological reasons.

This can not go unchallenged.

[MrBi11]

Great points ..
+Rep

[PocketProtector]

Pure and blatant attempt to silence the opposition...Alinksy 101.

[Morel42]

It helps to understand what's going on if you realize that The White House no longer views FOX news as a "Free Media" type of organization, but as a Public voice for the Republican party..

I'm not saying they're are that bad, but they have really put themselves up as the voice of the Conservatives. There commentators are mostly a joke, and they hardly take time to clarify which is news and what is opinion.

[Morel42]

Pure and blatant attempt to silence the opposition...Alinksy 101.

Ohh please, stop with the 1984 stuff already.. Every thread is about it nowadays.. lol Go ahead and look.

If they wanted to silence Fox News, it would take about 15 minutes for the FCC commissioner getting the phone call to pull their airwaves and license.. lol

That's not what they're doing. They're doing the typical Democratic dumb shit move by letting everyone but them dictate the discussion and political game.

You should also be aware that the same people who you claim are trying to silence the opposition, are apart of the same party who makes sure that PAFOA gets the same amount of access to bandwidth as Democratic Underground. Net Neutrality anyone?

Don't mistake plain stupidity for pure evil NWO Tin foil hat stuff..

[SkullBone]

It helps to understand what's going on if you realize that The White House no longer views FOX news as a "Free Media" type of organization, but as a Public voice for the Republican party..

I'm not saying they're are that bad, but they have really put themselves up as the voice of the Conservatives. There commentators are mostly a joke, and they hardly take time to clarify which is news and what is opinion.

Well that's kind of a wishy/washy post. If your gonna go against a media outlet that doesn't report the news you like to hear, then just take that step against freedom of speech.

[dc dalton]

Well let's turn this on it's ear JUST a bit more.

It is a proven fact that FOX was getting 'talking points' directly from the White House under Bush / Cheney, talking points most of the other networks never got and talking points most of them would have laughed at .... now is that 'fair and balanced' reporting? They helped 'sell' the Iraq war and all the bullshit that we now know to be outright lies that were coming from that administration .... so why was no one screaming about that?

THAT was in fact an administration using a so-called news outlet as a propaganda machine. Is that American? Nope, sounds like some other regimes we have know in our history.

Then let's look at some of the absolutely pathetic 'reporting' (and I use the term loosely) that FOX throws out as 'real news' when in fact it is nothing more than a radical neocon agenda ... there's no 'fact checking', no accountability, just say whatever they find on some blog or get from some over the top pundit.

Now, that being said I am also no fan of MSNBC, CNN or most of the media out there .... American 'news' has become polluted, politically motivated nonsense but when I look at the 'nonsense' I see FOX WAY out in the lead.

The day this country gets a real news station back on air is the day we can all start getting this country back on its feet!

[Dredly]

It helps to understand what's going on if you realize that The White House no longer views FOX news as a "Free Media" type of organization, but as a Public voice for the Republican party..

I'm not saying they're are that bad, but they have really put themselves up as the voice of the Conservatives. There commentators are mostly a joke, and they hardly take time to clarify which is news and what is opinion.

The White House doesn't view Fox news as a Free Media outlet because they won't report what the White House wants...

Fox news isn't a media outlet... but CNN and The Huffington Post are?