All The News Obama Considers Fit To Print

The NY Times sends one of its war correspondents almost to the front in their coverage of the escalating war between the White House and Fox News.  Apparently Jim Rutenberg does not want to risk losing the Obama Approval of the Times, so he offers comically incomplete coverage of the "Throw Fox Out of the Pool" incident which conceals an Administration flip-flop:

In a sign of discomfort with the White House stance, Fox’s television news competitors refused to go along with a Treasury Department effort on Tuesday to exclude Fox from a round of interviews with the executive-pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg that was to be conducted with a “pool” camera crew shared by all the networks. That followed a pointed question at a White House briefing this week by Jake Tapper, an ABC News correspondent, about the administration’s treatment of “one of our sister organizations.”

"Followed a pointed question" in which Jake Tapper showed some solidarity with Fox?  It followed a specific claim by White House flack Robert "I Started A Joke" Gibbs that the White House would not interfere with the decisions by the White House Correspondents Association as to who belongs in the press pool:

Carol E. Lee, Politico: Does that mean the White House doesn't believe they should be part of the press pool? 

Gibbs: The press pool is decide 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 why is Jim Rutenberg unwilling to report the clear, blatant Administration flip-flop over 48 hours?  That is quite a compliant attitude about a "free" press.  And, to state the obvious, a remarkable change in attitude - surely the Times would be writing of nothing else if Evil BushCo had tried such a stunt. 

Obama trusts the NY Times to deliver the news.  Should the rest of us?

REFRESH MY MEMORY:  Did the White House freeze out CBS News during RatherGate in 2004?

Comments

[Buford Gooch]

But if the Obama White House does it, it's just a maturing statement, not a flip flop.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

REFRESH MY MEMORY: Did the White House freeze out CBS News during RatherGate in 2004?

That's a rhetorical question, right?

[matt]

welcome to the Russo-German lapdog media circa 1936, Comrades Dowd, Dionne, Robinson, Rich and Ifill...

The Party appreciates your loyal service....LUN

[Gregory Koster]

This is the latest puzzler about the TIMES's readers. Unless they read the TIMES, and nothing else, they can't be missing all of these shameless attempts to bend the news. This is particularly true of out-of-town readers. So why do they keep reading? Inertia's part of it, but it doesn't seem to be enough. The TIMES's demographic isn't all Upper West Side denizens.

I wish some hacker would bring the TIMES's internal emails to the world. The staff are in the same fix: as The Once continues to attempt to put Fox to the bayonet, they can't help but wonder what their own future is like, bailout or no bailout. Remember, TIMES correspondents include people like John Tierney and John F. Burns as well as the Dowd-Kristof-Friedman opinion ninnies.

[AL]

I am kind of puzzled here.

Do you Americans have no guts to say loudly that Obama’ assault on Fox News is unconstitutional attack on Free Press?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Gregory: I think there are alot of non-New Yorkers who buy the Times for the book review section and the crossword. But, then again, if someone is buying the Times, it is highly unlikely that person does not have a computer, so why would this imaginary person buy the Times?

See what happens when you try to explain why moonbats do what they do.

[Tom Bowler]

So why is Jim Rutenberg unwilling to report the clear, blatant Administration flip-flop over 48 hours?

Might be simple economics. Fawning over the Messiah might actually get these guys bailed out. That sort of thing was out of the question during the Bush administration, so bashing was clearly in order, and free as well.

There has always been this trade off between favorable coverage and access. But this is ridiculous.

[Jane]

AL,

So what else is new? It's not like assaulting the Constitution isn't a daily occurrence in this white house. Trust me, this is just the latest outrage.

[Captain Hate]

Robert "I Started A Joke" Gibbs

Very well done.

[Captain Hate]

AL, don't confuse journalists with "(us) Americans".

[hit and run]

Obama tried to lock Fox out of the pool report because he thinks that he should fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here.

[Hybris makes you think you don't have to watch your step.]

Pretty clearly, going forward, Fox can wear this intended 'Mark of Shame' as a 'Badge of Honor'. Axelrod screwed up bigtime here, validating the credibility of Fox News forevermore.
===============================

[narciso]

Doesn't the refrain " but the joke was on me"

[narciso]

The theory of long odds, should dictate that
Benen would get something right, just by chance, just like throwing darts at the Wall Street Journal, nope

[Jack is Back!]

I wonder if Biden will throw Fox off his plane like Cheney did to the New York Times?

I subscribe to the New York Times Sunday edition which is dumped on my driveway in a sky blue plastic sleeve. Inside I find all the news fit to print (geometrically but not necessarily worthy) and the crossword puzzle. Thinking about it - its not worth $27 month to do a stinking crossword puzzle so I am probably going to give it up. More and more I get my news on the internet and find a much more diverse set of facts, fiction and opinion.

[Jane]

I gave up the crossword puzzle about a decade ago Jack. I still miss it, but I will not buy the NY Times.

[narciso]

Well remember he made a point of throwing the New York Post's reporter, Ryan Lizza
and one other during the campaign

[Everybody have their blindfolds on?]

Oh, this will be fun and I haven't even read it yet. Obama's crew is trashing Deeds for not taking their advice. Talk about a circular firing squad.

I'm not sure the next three years will be as bad as we expect. A free press is a grand, glorious, and gobsmacking thing to watch. Maybe we'll get to do so.
============================

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

The NY Times crossword puzzle is available online, folks. It's one week late, but available.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Courtesy of the Seattle Times, last Friday's NY Times crossword puzzle.

[Mike Huggins]

Is Jim Rutenberg even an adult? He looks like a twerp college student.

[Mike Huggins]

And BTW, Crittenden is on a roll with this stuff, too, like TM.

[glasater]

Wow AL-

That's some link you have under your name!

[Mike Huggins]

Second that one, glaster.

[Rocco]

Israel is pissed that some are suggesting the Zionist entity give back what it stole during it’s 1967 War of Aggression. West Bank Hasidics are absolutely livid over this thought and would stop at nothing to keep what they stole.

To date, approximately 94 percent of the territories won in the defensive war have been given by Israel to its Arab neighbors. This demonstrates Israel’s willingness to make territorial compromises.

[glasater]

Bill Maher--that idiot--said years ago that the Palestinians belonged in Jordan. Wonder if he's still making that claim.

[sbw]

If I get this right, the Palestinians demand Jerusalem because they stole it fair and square.

[glasater]

SBW--the brain is rusty here--who did they steal it from?:)

[sbw]

Glaster, why, the people from who they are demanding it back.

[Captain Hate]

Bill Maher--that idiot--said years ago that the Palestinians belonged in Jordan. Wonder if he's still making that claim.

I guess the phrase Black September doesn't mean a thing to that ignorant tool. I'll say one thing for the Jordanians: They know how to deal with the palis.

[glasater]

SBW--blushing--why of course:-)

Captain--years ago I read an article basically saying that the 'dirty secret' of the Arabs--they hate the Palestinians almost as much as the Jews.

[AL]

Ha! LUNs are quite sticky. Time to change it for something more fun.

[Captain Hate]

Excellent AL

[megapotamus]

The answer to the addendum of course, is no. But I was of the opinion that W should have pushed back much harder on the Media Front in his own war. Rather was one skirmish but I am really thinking of Their Joe Wilson. Maybe this incident indicates he was right to basically ignore the tenor of the press, if not the content. It has a Lincolny precedent but there must be a middle ground here. Tony Snow and Perino (and Ari, he was missed as soon as he left) served their offices well but I waited in vain for Bush to publicly state the simple facts of Plame/Wilson. The Rather Assault had some intricacies that are often mistated (not by JOM though). The AM squad would sometimes attack Kerry for not executing his Form 180 and say that Bush already had. This was never so, however. Kerry, being something less than Chief Executive was basically no more than a private citizen releasing his military records. The 180 is for all these requests. When Bush wanted to open his records for full inspection he did not file a 180. It was never said but I suspect the reason was that having the President follow the procedure for any other shmoe would set a nasty precedent bomb for the executive. We do know that his records were fully available because they got a media scrub the likes of which no serial killer has ever yet received and the one ommission; the hard pay stubs from TANG in the '70s were ultimately located. WHEW! Boy, could Hussein withstand that sort of scrutiny for 15 consecutive seconds? Well, he won't ever have to but we see the limits of boolshite with the Obies as they are unable to withstand even the tounge-bath coverage they have enjoyed lo these many months. And the facts have barely begun to trickle through to the sea on which we float; the vast majority of our blissfully ignorant brothers and sisters.