But more importantly – there are more details emerging about the uproar over the initial decision, causing the Treasury Department to reverse their decision.

Fox News SVP of news and editorial programming Michael Clemente tells Mediaite the plan was to replace the Fox News interview with a Bloomberg interview instead. This was verified by an executive at another network. After the D.C. bureau chiefs at ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News discussed the decision, and pushed back at the unprecedented move, the Treasury Department relented and allowed FNC in. And according to Clemente, the decision was made by someone at the center of the White House vs. FNC feud. “They picked up the phone and called Anita Dunn, and Dunn said, ‘Fine let Fox in,’” he says of the Treasury Department.

“It was a very absolutely clear attempt to leave Fox out,” says Clemente.

The White House apologized to FNC yesterday for the move. “We were subsequently told it was a mistake by a low level person at the Treasury Department,” says Clemente. “Major [Garrett] was told that by Robert Gibbs and others.”

In the wake of the report Thursday on Fox News, the Treasury Department, a White House spokesperson and others have raised doubts about the original story, citing the fact that FNC did conduct the interview. “That’s what ultimately happened but that’s not what the initial planning was,” says Clemente. (Mediaite reporter Tommy Christopher has been in contact with Fox News before and after the publication of this article, and they cited the CBS Evening News report added to the article, rather than commenting directly.)

CBS News D.C. bureau chief Christopher Isham also serves as the pool chair. He tells Mediaite he convened a conference call and all the bureau chiefs agreed they were not comfortable with excluding one of the members of the pool in a pool interview.

The news has gotten a reaction from around the media world – with reports from CBS News and the AP, among others. And all show, once again, the White House losing the battle it has chosen to wage with Fox News.

We asked Clemente if he sees the fight as a ‘net gain’ or ‘net loss’ for his network. No surprise here:

Net gain. It just further defines for people that we do our journalism really well, have very strong opinion shows. It would have been better I would think for the White House’s sake if this never happened, but these are decisions that are made by Anita Dunn and the press office, and we have been dealing with for over 2 weeks now, if not longer. We have to deal with it as long as have to deal with it.

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But yesterday’s round-robin pool interviews of new executive pay czar Kenneth Feinberg saw the White House trying to ostracize Fox News again – and their partners in the pool taking a stand, again.

James Rosen reported on the incident during FNC’s Special Report last night, saying the White House pool, which is a five-network rotation “that for decades has shared the cost and duties of daily coverage of the presidency, to which Fox News has belonged since 1997,” was told the pay czar would be available for round-robin interviews, but FNC would not be included. “The Washington bureau chiefs of the five TV news networks [ABC, CBS, CNN, FNC and NBC] consulted and decided that none of them would interview Feinberg unless Fox was included, and the administration relented,” said Rosen.

Yes – instead of five-minute interviews with the four networks, they agreed to two-minute interviews with the five networks, plus Bloomberg. This was the first true test for the White House press pool as the other networks start feeling the affect of the FNC vs. WH battle – and they very clearly came down on the side of their fellow media.

“I think it’s outrageous that the White House tried that,” said Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik in the report. “And I’m really cheered that the other networks said ‘no’.”

On Special Report, Fred Barnes continued a line of comment that was discussed by Anderson Cooper earlier this week. “One adjective comes up and when this adjective comes up you know you’re in trouble and it’s ‘Nixonian.’”

Not everyone on the panel agreed. NPR’s Mara Liasson said, “Access is not the same thing as free speech – the White House is not duty bound by the First Amendment to give everybody the same interview.”

The New York Times has a lengthy piece on the entire White House vs. Fox News feud, including a part about the pay czar decision yesterday. They also have the latest from Fox News’ SVP of news and editorial programming Michael Clemente:

[Clemente] said the White House was conflating the network’s commentary with its news coverage. That, Mr. Clemente said, “would be like Fox News blaming the White House senior staff for the Washington Redskins’ losing record.”

“I think we’re doing the job we’re supposed to be doing,” he said, “and we do it as well as anyone.”

This story has come to an end for the week – but if administration officials are back out on the Sunday shows bashing the merits of an entire news organization, expect this to not only continue, but escalate.

Here’s the Rosen report, and the Special Report panel discussing the pool response (via Johnny Dollar):

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