White House Has Beef with Fox News, But Loves FNC Reporter Major Garrett

by Zeke Turner | 2:03 pm, October 10th, 2009

» 7 comments

garrett3 It was a sign that things were bad: David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama, sat down with Fox News founder and chairman Roger Ailes for coffee while the whole White House crew was in New York City two weeks ago for the United Nations General Assembly.

The White House was annoyed by the way that FNC has been covering the current administration, and also upset that other mainstream outlets have not been especially diligent when fact-checking Fox.

Time‘s Michael Scherer has been following the White House’s attempts to manage the cable news network and others in the mainstream media. In this week’s magazine, he writes about how the Obama administration has gradually grown tired of slanted coverage and criticism. The plan is to “call ‘em out.”

White House officials offer no apologies. “The best analogy is probably baseball,” says [White House Press Secretary Robert] Gibbs. “The only way to get somebody to stop crowding the plate is to throw a fastball at them. They move.”

But in his reporting, Scherer found out that the White House doesn’t think that Fox is all bad. Actually, Anita Dunn, the field marshall of the Call ‘Em Out Patrol, thinks Fox’s Major Garrett is pretty legit. Major Garrett, eh? Well at least somebody can be considered a real journalist, because this was pretty harsh:

“They are the paid political programming for a party, and occasionally a couple of news stories break out in the midst of 23 hours and 45 minutes of political rantings and opinion,” said one senior administration official. “Everything about it is one-sided political opinion directed at a base. Period.”

Ouch.

Read What Even The White House Respects About Fox News [Time]

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CaptainAmerica

So they love Major Garret?! lol How many press conferences did the “chosen one” have where he called on about everyone except the FNC reporter? Then the first time he did call on MG wasn’t his question about the White House emails? Didn’t the White House get all in a huff about that one?

Odd how they love major but not Shep or Geraldo. No Juliet Huddy? She likes Obama. Friel voted for and is a big Obama supporter. Is Molly Henneberg too rough on the chosen one? Can he not stand up to Shannon Bream?

Granted, the FNC reporters aren’t kissing his butt 24/7 like you see Contessa Brewer, Tamara, Norah, Shuster and all the other so called reporters on MSNBC. Same with CNN.

The White House just keeps up this sorry tactic because they can’t stand up to Glen Beck or Sean Hannity. They are wimps and crybabies.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-De-Rosa/503357744 Anthony De Rosa

Because Beck and Hannity are circus clowns and Garrett is a legitimate journalist.
ChrisNH

What about ‘state-run’ MSNBC and CNN? They’re ‘bought-and-paid-for’ by Obama. Why not be thrilled to have TWO cable channels plus most of the major dailies and all three major networks in your pocket? Instead, they whine like petulant children about ONE cable channel. ONE!

Oh…it’s their audience size that matters, you say??? Well then, why don’t we just discuss why that is…’

What a bunch of dumb clucks in this administration.
JunkJunk

Right-on, Anthony.
TfT

MSNBC and CNN are bought and paid for by the democrats; they spew left wing talking points day in/day out. This of course is just fine with Team Obama because they know they can count on Matthews, Olbermann, Schuster, Contessa, Norah et al…not to mention Campbell Brown, Wolf, LKL and Cooper all cow towers.

The WH is trying to silence all conservative voices….afterall, the info about Van Jones, NEA, ACORN, etc would never have been brought to the public’s attention if it weren’t for truth seekers on FNC.

The WH doesn’t want any truth being told to the people, they want to silence all opposing voices. Must be taking lessons from their good friends Fidel and Hugo.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-De-Rosa/503357744 Anthony De Rosa

TfT, all the networks are bought and paid for.

If you think Fox News is any different than MSNBC and CNN, you’re as clueless as the mindless lemmings who take their talking points from left-wing networks.

When are you going to wake up and realize you’re as much as puppet as they are?
StewartIII

FOX News Commentators:
Bill O’Reilly
Sean Hannity
Glenn Beck

And of course, there are others. But there are far more of these.

FOX News Reporters:
Major Garrett
Wendell Goler
Jennifer Griffin
Carl Cameron
Shannon Bream
Brian Wilson
Catherine Herridge
Jim Angle
Steve Centanni

Does the Obama White House know the difference? Doesn’t seem like it to me.