In some ways, having its former employee Tony Snow become White House press spokesman is a prestigious feather in its cap for Fox News — a formal coming of age. In other ways it may prove to be a swift pain in the A — according to this CNN story:
During a briefing led by White House spokesman Scott McClellan as President Bush was traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana, the Washington Post’s Jim VandeHei asked why the White House televisions always seemed to be tuned to Fox News and if it was possible to have them tuned instead to CNN.
“It’s come to my attention that there’s been requests — this is a serious question — to turn these TVs onto a station other than Fox, and that those have been denied,” VandeHei told McClellan, who is soon to be replaced by former Fox anchor and self-described conservative Tony Snow.
Hey, if you’re in a government airplane, why shouldn’t you watch a government station (some would ask)?
“My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?” VandeHei asked.
“Never heard of any such thing,” McClellan responded. “My TVs are on four different channels at all times.”
But isn’t it confusing to watch Animal Planet, Sean Hannity, The Food Network and Sponge Bob Squarepants when you’re trying to work? MORE:
VandeHei noted that McClellan has four televisions in his office, and clarified that he was referring to the ones that reporters can see.
“They’re always turned to Fox, which a lot of people consider a Republican-leaning network.”
Who thinks that?
VandeHei noted that the televisions are paid for with taxpayer dollars.
“And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?”
McClellan said it was the first he had heard such a claim, and that it was not true.
“In fact, I’ve watched other channels on here,” he said.
That’s right. Hey, what channel was Sex In The City on, again?
“I’ve never known anyone that’s raised a complaint about a request from back here to watch a different channel,” McClellan added.
VandeHei replied, “I’m officially raising it, and officially complaining about it.”
QUESTION: Do VandeHei’s bosses realize that while he’s being paid to cover the news he’s fighting over who controls the White House remote? Or is controlling White House TV viewing habits a new part of print media beat reporting?
McClellan then asked whether VandeHei had tried to have the change made.
“I was told — the quote was, ‘No,’ when I asked for CNN,” the reporter said.
McClellan asked him with whom he had spoken, but VandeHei said he did not know.
“Well, the magic people at the other end off the phone … I was told, ‘We don’t watch CNN here, you can only watch Fox,’ ” VandeHei said.
That differs from the Clinton administration — where they could only watch foxes.
FINAL QUESTION: Why don’t they ask McClellan why the White House doesn’t read The Moderate Voice? We carry accurate info and unlike most of the print media we never hve any typoos…
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.