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« NY Conservative = KY Liberal? Ehh, Could Be... | Main | The Obligatory Friday Night Open Thread »
Saturday
Oct242009

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.

October 24, 2009 at 10:08 | Unregistered CommenterPublicSchoolMissionary

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*

October 24, 2009 at 10:27 | Registered Commenterwesmorgan1

FOX refutes it.

"Of course we requested the interview," Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente said, responding to reports citing the White House as claiming it had excluded Fox News from a series of interviews Thursday with Kenneth Feinberg set up through the five-network TV pool.

Clemente also said that the White House had acknowledged that an employee at the Treasury Department made a mistake in initially excluding Fox.

Sounds like somebody is throwing the Treasury Department under the bus...hmmmm, wonder whom that could be..

October 24, 2009 at 23:13 | Registered CommenterGrayRider

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.

October 25, 2009 at 01:00 | Unregistered CommenterTijuana

It sounds like they were never intentionally excluded, despite the "under the bus" comments above.

Here's another tidbit from TPM:

TPMDC spoke with a network bureau chief this afternoon familiar with the situation who was surprised that Fox was portraying the news as networks coming to its rescue.

"If any member had been excluded it would have been the same thing, it has nothing to do with Fox or the White House or the substance of the issues," the bureau chief said. "It's all for one and one for all."

A Treasury spokesperson added: "There was no plot to exclude Fox News, and they had the same interview that their competitors did. Much ado about absolutely nothing."

Now we also hear this, from Huffington Post as quoted by Politico:

A Fox News executive told the Huffington Post Saturday that the network "absolutely" did request an interview with Obama administration "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg and that the White House acknowledged a mistake on the part of a Treasury department staffer in failing to initially include Fox News in the round of interviews Feinberg conducted Thursday.
but later in that same Huffington Post article, they write:
Clemente added that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledged to Fox News' White House Correspondent Major Garrett that a low level Treasury staffer made a mistake in attempting to exclude Fox from the pool interviews.
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.

October 25, 2009 at 01:36 | Registered Commenterwesmorgan1

Sorta like a Freudian slip I reckon.

I just don't know how I forgot to put them on my list.

October 25, 2009 at 09:24 | Unregistered CommenterTijuana

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.

October 28, 2009 at 11:05 | Unregistered CommenterChicken Little

The WSJ's Thomas Frank weighs in:

To point out that this network is different, that it is intensely politicized, that it inhabits an alternate reality defined by an imaginary conflict between noble heartland patriots and devious liberals—to be aware of these things is not the act of a scheming dictatorial personality. It is the obvious conclusion drawn by anybody with eyes and ears.
Heh...

October 28, 2009 at 13:41 | Registered Commenterwesmorgan1

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.

November 4, 2009 at 05:11 | Unregistered Commenteraccessoires téléphones portables

I fell it interesting like a puzzle or like a suspense created in movies. Well lets see what happens.

r4 dsi

November 26, 2009 at 23:29 | Unregistered CommenterHoly
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