White House, Fox News Meeting: Gibbs Met With Fox News Exec

NEW YORK — Fox News Channel and the Obama administration are talking.

The network confirmed a Politico report that Fox news executive Michael Clemente met at the White House on Wednesday with Robert Gibbs, President Barack Obama's press secretary. There were no details given about the meeting.

Fox has been battling with the administration, which contends the network operates more like a wing of the Republican Party than a news organization.

The meeting came a day after Fox anchor Shepard Smith apologized for a "lack of balance" following a political report where the Republican candidate for New Jersey governor was interviewed and the Democratic incumbent wasn't.

Fox correspondent Shannon Bream had wrapped up a live interview with GOP candidate Chris Christie on Smith's afternoon news show Tuesday when the anchor asked, "When will you be interviewing Jon Corzine?"

Bream replied that despite "multiple requests," Corzine hadn't made himself available for an interview.

"I didn't know that was about to happen," Smith then said. "My apologies for the lack of balance there. If I had control, it wouldn't have happened."

Smith is the network's chief news anchor and has even angered Fox viewers with some of his stories, including expressions of anger at the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

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During Smith's second newscast on Tuesday evening, a New Jersey report included a Corzine sound bite given to the Fox broadcast network's New York affiliate.

The race in New Jersey is one of two marquee contests in 2009, along with the gubernatorial campaign in Virginia. Corzine trailed Christie in the early stages of the campaign, but recent polls show the governor has closed the gap.

Meanwhile, Fox received support Wednesday from an unlikely source: CNN's prime-time host Campbell Brown. She interviewed Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett and asked whether the White House considered left-leaning MSNBC biased as well. Jarrett wouldn't speak about the network.

She "seems loathe to admit that MSNBC has a bias," Brown said. "And that is where I think the White House loses all credibility on this issue."

If the White House wants to talk about bias in the media, officials "should elevate the conversation and talk about bias on the right and on the left," Brown said. "Because when you just target one side, you reveal your own bias – that you are only critical of those who are critical of you."

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Fox is owned by News Corp.; CNN is owned by Time Warner Inc. and MSNBC is a unit of General Electric Co.

Comments

[billythekidd]

CNN is just jealous of the competition that MSNBC is bringing them. They hope to make MSNBC seem biased to win back viewers.

It is completely dishonest on CNN's part not to call out the lies that Fox uses when they present their take on the Obama administration. MSNBC will call our Obama when they disagree with what he and his administration is doing. And they will call a news network liars when they tell lies.

CNN is too busy claiming that they are "the best news team" to do real balanced reporting. They rely on known biased and bigoted Pat Buchanon to explain issues that he clearly has an agenda to exploit to make the republican party look good.

An example was his statement that Obama hadn't done anything to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. CNN could have taken a cue from the Huffington Post which printed balanced articles that voiced opposite opinions so that readers could judge for themselves.

This article says "Meanwhile, Fox received support Wednesday from an unlikely source: CNN's prime-time host Campbell Brown." Either the writer of this article is attempting to be cute or he/she is too dumb to be writing articles like this.

Campbell is the MOST likely source to be siding with Fox since CNN's purpose is to attempt to win back those viewers MSNBC has taken from them. What better way than to make it seem like CNN is the ONLY fair news network.

billythekidd

[Susanmg]

I watch MSNBC and Keith and Rachel frequently call out Obama's decisions when they are stupid. They also take on topics no one else wants to touch, and they are often the first to break a story that then is on CNN a few days later. I think the White House should have let Fox trip over itself instead of making them a topic. I find Fox fairly idiotic most of the time. They lie, which I don;t find with MSNBC.

[JDWPS]

The bias is not the problem with Fox. It is the lies.
Jon Stewart shows those lies on a regular basis.
Fox makes things up. MSNBC does not. During the day on MSNBC you can hear many opinions and it starts the day with a host who does not belong on TV but Fox is where he fits if he is going to be on.
I tried to watch Campbell Brown but she is biased while pretending she is not and that doesn't work. It is very interesting that she is critical of WH position and MSNBC.

[AudacityOfHype]

You wanna know who really lies - The man in the oval office and his national band of merry press secretaries. It's like a line from Mythbusters; "I reject your reality and insert my own."

[DCDave]

Campell Brown is right, MSNBC is just as slavish in their devotion to Obama as Fox is in their disparagement. I watch both of them and its pretty obvious.

Although I have a hard time watching Chris Matthews since he said his leg tingles when he thinks about Obama, thats seriously TMI.

[silvertongue]

Campbell is just waiting for the offer and she's off to Fox where her heart is. Hopefully, she'll take her co-worker, Lou Dobbs, with her.

[Berkeleylefty]

First what is it that Campbell Brown's husband does??
Second.. Why does it seem like CNN becoming a launching pad for Fox "News" talent?
Third... I hope at least Gibbs used hand sanitizer after the meeting...

[AudacityOfHype]

OK i think i'm getting the hang of this. Any other of the 40% plus of Americans that are conservative want to give me some hints on how to preserve my free speech over here? So I can help you fight the 20% minority who seem to scream the loudest and whine about everything? This is fun

[LDS50]

Your free speech is annoying.

[AudacityOfHype]

I guess it would be to anyone who subscribes to a political philosophy that has lost credibility with the vast majority of america.

[AudacityOfHype]

pansy *ss mofo

[AudacityOfHype]

sissy

[AudacityOfHype]

Just a test to see wtf I can say without getting moderated.

[AudacityOfHype]

But then it's all lies anyway, so what does that mean?

[AudacityOfHype]

i disagree with everything obama says

[DCDave]

I believe this comment is against the terms of use. Criticising the President is not allowed on these boards. Normally comments like this get translated into:

i love Obama more than apple pie.

[Rangergirl]

MSNBC...Is more balanced than Fix news...They will criticize the President if they don't agree with him. Whereas fix news just says anything they want truth or fiction.....They don't care... as long as they have their political agenda met...

[Daw8it]

Media Matters: Ailes Brings History of Race-Baiting to Fox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnNyEKAZIO4

at 18 sec. you will see the true Ailes

[goodtomeetyou]

Fox Attacks: Black America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY04gIruZ4E

FOX News Isn't News. It's a Political Operation. (ACORN Edition)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2a4MEAoxko

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

if the result of this meeting is that direct appearances on fox by obama people will happen without a change in tone, it is no different than lucy putting a football down for charlie brown.

there needs to be a change of attitude over there, like professional journalism, over a period of time before anyone from the obama admion shows up there.

[juhar]

This is only my opinion but I don't see any benefit to the White House for the President or his staff going on Rupert Murdoch's Fox News. To do so now makes the White House appear to bend at every complaint.

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News witch hunts to demonize and then terminate the employment of anyone associated with the Obama Administration is enough.

I had no idea that the bipartisanship that Obama campaigned on would end up being an Administration that would put up with all Rupert Murdoch's S _ _ T, crap or bull.

[letsc]

This site is so anti Obama and so against the changes that really need to be made. I hope this site is next on their list to work over. This site needs to get with the program and support the president in a real way. Not be so negative to what the president is going to do to for once change this country to the way it should be.

[arcanepsyche]

This site reports news. If anything, it has a reputation of FAVORING Obama. So I'm not so sure you know what you're talking about.

[RSKaz]

The is a vast difference between MSNBC (or any news outlet) taking substantiated facts and forming an opinionated analysis, and FOX using blatantly false GOP supplied taking points and creating a propaganda machine.

[Expatslacker]

Then why didn't Jarrett say just that instead of trying to change the subject..if that's what they believe then that is what they should say.

[demdan07]

MSNBC gets their talking points directly from the White House, so what is the difference? Bias is bias, and that is why neither channel is to be believed - the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Following O"Reilly blindly is as rediculous as taking every word Olbermann says as gospel. Think for yourself!

[LDS50]

The truth is that Fox News repeats falsehoods over and over until they are assumed to be fact. To the right wing, if you're not trashing the president, you're in the tank.

[BeVeryAfraid]

I didn't see anyone reading the WH talking points word for word like they did on Fox for the republican's.