http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=736612#A conservative media watchdog says it has become increasingly apparent that the only legitimate media coverage -- according to the Obama administration -- is news that praises the president.
Last week the Obama administration attempted to isolate and exclude the Fox News Channel by telling the White House media pool that it would make "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg available for interviews to every member except Fox News. But according to Fox News, the Washington bureau chiefs of the five TV networks consulted and decided that none of their reporters would interview Feinberg unless Fox was included.
The administration eventually relented, making Feinberg available for all five pool members and Bloomberg TV. Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center, is pleased to see some backbone in the media.
"I think even some journalists now have started suggesting that it's a bad idea for the Obama people to try to make Fox unpopular and try to say Fox isn't a legitimate news channel," he observes.
According to the media watchdog, the administration is being more than a bit hypocritical.
"You know, there's just nothing funnier than an Obama administration official coming out and saying things like [Fox News is] not a news channel because they come with a perspective," says Graham.
"We've just been through two years of the news people portraying Obama with a heavenly aura around his head -- and they're saying we don't like news with perspective? The Obama administration is insisting that news is defined by praising the president."
Graham says he agrees with a recent assessment by Fox's Brit Hume, who suggested that the White House is trying to "quarantine" Fox so other media outlets might be discouraged from picking up on stories that Fox originates.