Obama's Attempt to Exclude Fox News from Pay Czar Interview Fails

In a refreshing show of journalistic integrity, the major Washington DC media chiefs sided with Fox News in defiance of Obama's efforts to deny Fox News interview access to Pay Czar, Kenneth Fienberg.

The White House continued it's feud with Fox News by trying to make Kenneth Fienberg, the so called Pay Czar, available to every news outlet except Fox. The attempt failed when the other media bosses consulted and agreed that that they would not participate in any interviews unless Fox was allowed to participate as well. Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik, was happy to see the media outlets basically saying "No, if Fox can't be part of it, we won't be part of it,'" and he called the attempt to shun Fox news "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"

" Peter Johnson Jr.,a Fox News legal analyst said:

"What was averted was a very serious constitutional violation by the White House,"....."There cannot be selective and arbitrary access to the White House based on some subjective determination."

Just this past Sunday on ABC's "This Week" David Axelrod, the senior White House advisor, stated that Fox was not a real news outlet and told the rest of the media that they should not be treated as such. A host of other Obama administration officials have been appearing on various networks criticizing Fox and calling it a mouth piece of the Republican party and telling the rest of the media not to treat them as legitimate. Obama has appeared on nearly every Sunday news show but has declined to go on Fox News Sunday. On Monday he met with the following "legitimate" news entities: 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. The title of legitimate is apparently reserved only for those who provide unflinchingly favorable coverage of the President.