The folding chairs in the pre-renovation press room had little brass labels for the sitter’s news organization. I remember it looked like someone had tried to pry off the tag for the Chicago Tribune.

I don’t remember if there were unassigned chairs. But it sure looked like if the White House had not stamped out a tag, your organization didn’t count.

Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization.

Jake, Jake, Jake ... once upon a time, the German Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda employed people who called themselves journalists and editors, too. Even back then, most people in the world acknowledged that it wasn’t really a legitimate news organisation. Whether or not a political propaganda machine is run by the state or by a private corporation is beside the point (I add this for the benefit of the Libertarians in the audience).

doesn’t the White House, as a normal matter of course, issue press credentials which require the holder to be a part of a legitimate news organization

Or a gay male whore, remember. Maybe that applies.

Or a gay male whore

Yes, that would have not been my guess for the demographic selected to ask softball questions full of praise for our compassionate conservative C-student leader.

Fox crossed the line between a news/opinion organization and an advocacy group when they sent their newsmen to host the anti-administration rallies they used FNC to promote. Should the White House issue press credentials to MoveOn.Org?

“Should the White House issue press credentials to MoveOn.Org?”

Well, when you get right down to it, maybe they should
I’d actually learn more if representitives of say unions or advocates for the disabled, etc got to ask questions rather then the over-paid beltway spokesmodels that we have now

Good for the White House. Fox News has gotten away with outrageous shit for far too long.

So is Fox actually banned from WH press conferences? It wasn’t clear from the linked transcript.

The comments over there are hilarious.  All this whining about the horrible abuses of power the Obama administration has already done…except they haven’t actually done anything.  No one has censored Fox.

W had everyone placing propaganda for his administration, and Perino just admitted that they avoided MSNBC, but somehow, calling out FOX for promotion and bias is worse than anything else EVER.

Couldn’t be b/c Obama is black, could it?  Seriously.  He hasn’t done anything yet.  His ability to do shit is predicated on things the reichwing was all to happy to allow his predecessor to do, so these johnny-come-lately whingers really have a credibility problem.

Question for Jake Tapper: doesn’t the White House, as a normal matter of course, issue press credentials which require the holder to be a part of a legitimate news organization, and as a part of that process, hasn’t the White House been engaged in the process of determining what is and isn’t a legitimate news organization for decades?

Hmmm.

I fully agree with the White House opinion that Fox News isn’t a legitimate news organization, but I disagree with your seeming argument that Fox News isn’t a legitimate news organization because the White House says so.

The White House shouldn’t arbitrate what is or isn’t a legitimate news organization.  This is true when a Republican is in office, AND when a Democrat is in office.

Fox News wasn’t a legitimate news organization two weeks ago, either.  Or two years ago.  Or twelve years ago.

I have no beef with the White House taking such a confrontational position towards Fox News or asserting its opinion that FNC isn’t to be treated as a legitimate unbiased news source.  But I don’t think the case for FNC’s legitimacy is predicated on the WH position towards them.  Unless of course you believe that Fox News WAS in fact a legitimate news source from 2001-2009, because the previous administration didn’t seem to share the current one’s opinion on the matter.

Good for the White House. Fox News has gotten away with outrageous shit for far too long.

So is Fox actually banned from WH press conferences? It wasn’t clear from the linked transcript.

No, nor will they ever be so long as they remain as powerful as they are.

Major Garrett’s seat in the Brady Press Room is still there.

So ... the issue is that massive media outlets should be allowed split themselves into twenty-dozen sister entities, and insist that each be separately credentialed even if there is no longer room in the venue?  And that the White House has no say on who gets to sit in that room?

Sounds like anti-trust and not suppression of “legitimate” press.

In any case, maybe Faux News should find them selves a self-employed shill to lob softball questions ... when he isn’t being paid to be a hardballing top.  That’s truly fair and balanced!

I remember reading what Tapper said about Fox News when he was with Salon and how it was just propaganda back during the recount in 2000.  My how adding a zero to the end of one’s paycheck changes things.

So ... the issue is that massive media outlets should be allowed split themselves into twenty-dozen sister entities, and insist that each be separately credentialed even if there is no longer room in the venue?

Hey, it worked for the USSR in the UN. Remember when the UN had to establish separate seats for entities like the Whatthefuckistan Soviet Socialist Republic?

Since Fox News follows the Pravda top-down editorial model, they should be allowed to ape the Soviets in this way, too.

Fox crossed the line between a news/opinion organization and an advocacy group when they sent their newsmen to host the anti-administration rallies they used FNC to promote.

They passed it long before that, but the Tea Party Rallies are certainly a good milestone in FOX’s long, pathetic decent into flailing self-parody.

I think POLITICO is correct in that it’s a desperate attempt at containment.

For weeks FOX has exposed one member of this administration after another which is what news organizations DO. The problem was these members could not stand the white-hot spotlight of scrutiny. It wasn’t the reporting that did it.

If you only read the NYT or watched MSNBC, you would have only learned about the Van Jones controversy AFTER he was forced out.

So, who’s REALLY the news organization?

Countdown to NYSN’s banning… 3…

For weeks FOX has exposed one member of this administration after another which is what news organizations DO. The problem was these members could not stand the white-hot spotlight of scrutiny. It wasn’t the reporting that did it.

In the same sense, perhaps, that the Inquisition exposed devil-worshippers and those who sacrificed children to Satan, showing its strengths as a noble and useful investigative agency.

so… the big scoop was that Van Jones called republicans “assholes”, and then the assholes went to work on getting him fired?

It think Caren pretty much has it. Democratic presidents, especially black ones, just aren’t legitimate, so any criticism they make of right-wing propaganda organizations is by definition illegitimate. And Tapper is pretty much a poster child for “power corrupts, and getting invited to the right cocktail parties corrupts absolutely.”

To be fair, I don’t consider a bathroom pick-up to be vile behavior, unless one person proceeds in the face of the other’s rejection.  Republicans do though, which was what made that story such fun.

Not republicans, Eileen, but the republican in question.

All the same, what trolls here don’t get that screaming ACORN and trotting out a couple of spoiled xtian college brats and their illegal wiretapping and editing scam isn’t exactly Woodward and Bernstein.

Faux News is a side show.  They should have no problem being side lined.  Bush rarely gave press conferences and barely spoke to any press, save gay male escorts hired to lob softballs and puff pieces on Faux.  Obama speaks to everybody but the above, and that’s censorship?  Really.

Ms Kate-

Anything a liberal does is de facto anti-america and anything a conservative does is de facto pro-america. If a conservative commits a crime, it is a fluke, didn’t happen, or wasn’t a crime, if a liberal… oh let’s be serious here, is accused of anything by a conservative no matter how absurd, then it’s a “serious matter, needing careful consideration” even if said accusation is that said liberal is actually Cthulhu wearing one of the spy masks from Team Fortress 2.

It’s one of the worst cancers in our media today and it is entirely because a few john birchers realizing that their ideals were becoming more and more hated and dismissed, went out and bought themselves the media. Not just FOX, but CNN, WaPo and the rest. The owners of the news media conglomerates and certainly “the most critical advertisers” set the tone for the rest of the operation and they have decided they like FOX News and promoted a bunch of people up the ranks who agree.

Also, let’s not forget that the bubble literally believes America is moronic and cannot be better, so why bother trying to inform them.