Writing earlier today, Howard Kurtz argues that President Obama's interview tomorrow on Fox is a sign that the White House accepts Fox's argument that it is is a traditional news operation, at least by day.
This [the Fox interview] would be unremarkable -- the president is constantly on TV -- except for last year's White House campaign attacking Fox News as an arm of the Republican Party. Fox executives insisted there is an important distinction between its news operation and opinionated hosts such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. In sitting down with Baier, Obama -- who cordially greeted Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes at a White House Christmas party -- seems to be accepting that distinction.
On the surface, that sounds reasonable, but let's get some context. Here's White House Communications Director Anita Dunn last October answering a question about whether President Obama would do interviews with Fox:
The answer is yes, obviously he’ll go on Fox because he engages with ideological opponents. And he has done that before. He will do it again. I can’t give you a date because, frankly, I can’t give you dates for anybody else right now.
But what I will say is that when he goes on FOX, he understands that he is not going on — it really is not a news network at this point. He’s going to debate the opposition. And that’s fine. He never minds doing that.
So either Obama thinks Fox has changed since October (unlikely) or he is simply sitting down with what he considers to be an unfriendly media outlet (far more likely). But he's definitely not implicitly accepting Fox's argument that they were right all along. And given that Dunn said Obama would go back on Fox (this will be the second time since October), this is certainly not remarkable.
Oh, and by the way, do you know whose question Dunn was answering?
That's right: it was Howard Kurtz's.