More on That Whole Fox News Thing...
Well, now that people are digging into what actually happened, that whole "exclude Fox News" thing may have been, well, not much of anything. Courtesy Politico:
UPDATE: From what I hear, the situation was more between Treasury and Fox after the networks decided to pool interviews with Feinberg that had been requested by some, but not all of the networks. The bureau chiefs agreed that all networks should be included in the pool, including Fox, which had been missing from Treasury's list of networks involved in the interviews. The White House was contacted by Treasury, but as a spokesperson points out, they did not keep Fox from interviewing Feinberg.
So, it must have been Treasury that excluded Fox - those evil nasty people! No, wait, that isn't quite right, either; here's additional info, from Talking Points Memo:
Feinberg did a pen and pad with reporters to brief them on cutting executive compensation. TV correspondents, as they do with everything, asked to get the comments on camera. Treasury officials agreed and made a list of the networks who asked (Fox was not among them).
But logistically, all of the cameras could not get set up in time or with ease for the Feinberg interview, so they opted for a round robin where the networks use one pool camera. Treasury called the White House pool crew and gave them the list of the networks who'd asked for the interview.
The network pool crew noticed Fox wasn't on the list, was told that they hadn't asked and the crew said they needed to be included. Treasury called the White House and asked top Obama adviser Anita Dunn. Dunn said yes and Fox's Major Garrett was among the correspondents to interview Feinberg last night.
So, Fox didn't even request the interview, but the pool crew asked that they be added. Why would they do that? Well, TV Newser chips in an interesting bit of info:
The pool is paid for by and rotates between ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and NBC, allowing each network to do quick interviews using the same camera crew. If the White House were to exclude one of the members, the other networks would have to provide their own crew for the interview.
There are financial and contractual arrangements and obligations between the networks when the pool is involved that would override any opinion the networks and bureau chiefs might have with the White House's position on Fox. Under that official arrangement, everyone has to be treated equally.
If nothing else, you'd think that the other networks would confirm the question of White House (or Treasury) pressure to exclude Fox, right? Not quite; finally, we have this from Mediaite:
As yet, none of the other network bureau chiefs has gone on record to corroborate Fox’s reporting. We have made inquiries with several of them, and are awaiting a response.
So, it looks like Fox may not have been on Treasury's list for on-camera interviews because they didn't ask for one, they decided to go with pool equipment for logistical reasons, the pool crew said "hey, wait, Fox isn't on the list?" and Fox was added to the list for the interview they didn't even request. The White House was apparently consulted, and they said to go ahead and include Fox for the interview they didn't even request.
It's amazing what fact-checking can accomplish.
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Reader Comments (10)
Yes, I'm sure that it was just coincidence that the same week Chavez....um...I mean Obama was attacking a news organization they were somehow (apparently by their own fault) left out.
By the same token, PSM, I guess we can be sure that all these different sources were all co-opted by the Evil Obama Overlords in less than 24 hours, and that they carefully deployed a series of reports that put all this misinformation into the mix. *chuckle*
FOX refutes it.
Sounds like somebody is throwing the Treasury Department under the bus...hmmmm, wonder whom that could be..
Every time this "precedent" sticks his wank in a crank, almost daily, it turns out to be just one more big mistake. Weird how that works. This guy and his entire administration are dumber than Dan Quayle and both George Bush's combined. No comedy material here. Fuhgetaboutit.
Though I believe the axelrod and emanuel statements about FOX are recorded for eternity. Don't think they will ever be able to say they didn't say FOX does not report the news they just have slanted opinions about stuff, chiefly this white house.
I tell ya what, these people are stunning. They insult millions of voters who watch FOX and don't think they will pay a price for it. I guess we'll see want we.
It sounds like they were never intentionally excluded, despite the "under the bus" comments above.
Here's another tidbit from TPM:
Now we also hear this, from Huffington Post as quoted by Politico:
but later in that same Huffington Post article, they write:So, the same article claims "failed to include" and "attempting to exclude;" they aren't quite the same thing, since the former is an error and the latter an intentional act.This is going to go down as yet another of those eye-of-the-beholder things. Some folks will see "failed to include," like leaving something off one's grocery list, while other will see "attempting to exclude" as a Nefarious Act of Evil. We might as well leave it at that.
Sorta like a Freudian slip I reckon.
I just don't know how I forgot to put them on my list.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/shep-smith-apologizes-for_n_336231.html
Interesting watch. Makes we wish they had posted the whole interview so I could see what exactly had offended Smith so much.
The WSJ's Thomas Frank weighs in:
Heh...Hi...
I love to visit your blog at weekend. You have done great yet and hope you will continue with same here. Thank you so much for posting such a nice article again.
I fell it interesting like a puzzle or like a suspense created in movies. Well lets see what happens.
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