Looks like President-Elect Obama is giving Fox News the finger, and I couldn't be happier. FishbowlDC points out that Fox News has been shut out from asking a question at Obama's first four press conferences since the election. OK, now THIS is change I can believe in.
Whether it's for the "terrorist fist jab" comment, the "Obama's Baby Mama" chyron, the endless replays of Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers, or the thousands of other over-the-line smears of Obama on Fox News, is President-Elect Obama getting a little payback? More from FishbowlDC:
During Barack Obama's first press conference as president-elect (held on Nov. 7), he fielded questions from the Associated Press, NBC, ABC, CBS, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, CNN and the New York Times. At the time, we noted that Fox News was left out of the questioning.
During Barack Obama's second press conference (held yesterday), the Washington Post, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters, Wall Street Journal and USA Today were called on to ask questions.
During today's (Nov. 25) press conference (to announce Budget Director-designate Peter Orszag and Deputy Budget Director-designate Rob Nabors), Obama called on NBC's Savannah Guthrie, LA Times' Peter Nicholas, ABC-7's (Chicago) Andy Shaw and McClatchy's Steve Thomma.
And in today's press conference, Obama called on David Schaper, NPR (Chicago bureau); Tom DeFrank, New York Daily News; and Ed Henry, CNN.
In case you're counting:
ABC - 2
AP - 2
CNN 2
NBC - 2
Reuters 2
Bloomberg - 1
CBS - 1
Chicago Sun-Times - 1
Chicago Tribune - 1
Los Angeles Times - 1
McClatchy - 1
New York Daily News - 1
New York Times - 1
NPR - 1
USA Today - 1
Wall Street Journal - 1
Washington Post - 1
Fox News: Zippo
Interesting to note, perhaps, that Obama has so far called on both Chicago dailies plus local Chicago news outlets for NPR and ABC.
Robert Gibbs claims that the Fox News shutout is not intentional:
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs says there's "nothing nefarious" going on. "I would tell them, get a good question and stay tuned."
If you say so Robert. But I'm loving it all the same. Now that Fox News will no longer be the official press outlet of the White House, might it actually be forced to become an actual news station???