Fox News vs. White House: Fox 1, WH 0

 

UPDATE: Doug Ross at DirectorBlue notes a damning contradiction from Robert Gibbs:

Interestingly, this behavior completely contradicts an opinion rendered Tuesday by White House spokesman Robert Gibbs when questioned by ABC’s Jake Tapper.

Gibbs: The press pool is decide[d] by the White House Correspondents Association.
Lee: So you have no opinion on whether they should be …
Gibbs: I’m not going to delineate for the White House Correspondents Association how the pool is conducted. That’s not my job.

So the administration contradicted itself within 48 hours. That’s about twice as long as normal.

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It looks like Fox won the first major skirmish after being denied entrance to a White House press pool event.

Allahpundit at Hotair looks at possible consequences for networks after Obama is voted out:

The other networks deserve the praise they’re getting for standing up to the Baby-in-Chief, but if they had acquiesced in this freezeout, a precedent would have been set that would have been eagerly used by future Republican presidents to close them off too. And don’t think they weren’t all keenly aware of it.

But it’s more than the next Republican administration the networks need to worry about now. And it’s all very well to praise their noble or altruistic solidarity–it may be worth praising at that. But the networks ultimately know that it boils down to which side their bread is buttered on. The larger truth is that they are finally figuring out just what is really happening here. And they’re not liking it.

If ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN had allowed this marginalization of Fox to occur, their (and Fox’s) very ability to go about the business of reporting the news would eventually rely on the precarious good will of the Obama administration. Report one wrong story, publish a single less-than-complimentary opinion piece, possibly even just print an unflattering photo of The One, and that’s it. Credentials revoked, you’re not really a news organization either, bub.

Altruistic, sure. But absolutely straight-out bottom-line practical as well. It’s as if the networks are suddenly taking Martin Niemoller’s words to heart.

Stoutcat