Ed Henry: Give Fox News Helen Thomas's Seat In White House Briefing Room

At least one competitor is backing Fox News for the newly vacated front-row seat in the White House briefing room: CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry.

Henry, who is on the White House Correspondents Association board, told the Wall Street Journal that he thinks Fox News should get Helen Thomas's seat now that she has retired.

"When CNN bid for the front row in 2007, Fox could have challenged it and had a knock-down, drag-out fight like the one we might have this time," Henry said. "But they did the gentlemanly thing and said CNN had more seniority. I've got to honor that commitment."

The Daily Beast's Richard Wolffe detailed the 2007 seat selection, in which CNN won out over Fox due to its longer tenure covering the president:

Two cable TV networks, which covered the White House intensively, were pressing hard for their own front row spots, alongside the three main networks. The arguments laid out by CNN and Fox News were strong, in terms of their constant coverage of the White House and the resources spent on travel. But CNN won by dint of having covered the White House longer than its more recent rival....

Fox accepted CNN's prior place in the pecking order, and the network did not complain loudly about Thomas holding on to her front-row seat.

Fox News and Bloomberg are seen as the leading contenders to inherit Thomas's coveted front-row seat.

Watch CNN's Ed Henry report on the Helen Thomas situation below: