It ain’t news if you don’t report it…

That seems to be what the White House is saying according to this report in the NY Times.

Mr. Ailes, who had reached out to Mr. Axelrod to address rising tensions between the network and the White House, told him that Fox’s reporters were fair, if tough, and should be considered separate from the Fox commentators who were skewering President Obama nightly, according to people briefed on the meeting. Mr. Axelrod said it was the view of the White House that Fox News had blurred the line between news and anti-Obama advocacy.

By the following weekend, officials at the White House had decided that if anything, it was time to take the relationship to an even more confrontational level. The spur: Executives at other news organizations, including The New York Times, had publicly said that their newsrooms had not been fast enough in following stories that Fox News, to the administration’s chagrin, had been heavily covering through the summer and early fall — namely, past statements and affiliations of the White House adviser Van Jones that ultimately led to his resignation and questions surrounding the community activist group Acorn.

There followed, beginning in earnest more than two weeks ago, an intensified volley of White House comments describing Fox as “not a news network.”

“It was an amalgam of stories covered, and our assessment of how others were dealing with those stories, that caused us to comment,” Mr. Axelrod said in describing the administration’s thinking.

Ok, let me see if I’ve got this down.  Fox News is breaking stories the administration doesn’t like.  Other news outlets admit they were too slow in reporting those stories.  So, according to the White House, Fox News is not news because if it wasn’t reporting the news, it wouldn’t be news.

Alrighty then.  I’ll give the administration props for not hiding the fact that what they are trying to achieve is a news blackout from the other networks.  The fact that this story is in the NY Times indicates that strategy may fail.  Imagine that, Obama failing.  Who woulda thunk it possible?

Oh, and I actually laughed out loud when I read this:

Speaking privately at the White House on Monday with a group of mostly liberal columnists and commentators, including Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC and Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Bob Herbert of The New York Times, Mr. Obama himself gave vent to sentiments about the network, according to people briefed on the conversation.

That is pure comedy gold.  Obama bitching to Olbermann et al about the bias at FNC.  It’s good the President has provided us with an example of the type of “real” news organization he prefers.

Well, the Soviet Union had Pravda and now Obama has his MSNBC.  Makes sense.

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