The news that the administration’s press corps tried to keep Fox News out of a press pool event with executive-pay czar Kenneth Feinberg vindicates those who had thought that the White House’s pronouncement that Fox was “not really a news” outfit was ominously undemocratic. While some have tried to equate the administration’s stance toward Fox with the Bush administration’s criticism of, for instance, NBC, there is a clear distinction between complaining about specific aspects of an outfit’s coverage and declaring that company “not really news.” The connotation of that statement, I thought at the time it was made, was that the administration does not have to provide journalistic access to non-news companies. And I was right, as they followed up that claim with a concrete effort to exclude Fox from a news event. If they had done so successfully, would they have tried to push the envelope and refuse Fox from more and more events, with the ultimate goal of freezing them out altogether? Maybe, maybe not, but the point is that it would be at their discretion because Fox is not a news outlet.
