Reporters Complain About All White House/AF1 TV's Tuned to Fox

[wny]

From today's White House Press Briefing....We're fairly sure "Q" is : Jim VandeHeiQ 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. My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox? MR. McCLELLAN: Never heard of any such thing. My TVs are on four different channels at all times. Q Because you have four different TVs. But every time I've ever been -- MR. McCLELLAN: Every TV in the White House also has channels every -- has a split screen, where they can -- Q Well, they always seem to be tuned to Fox, and there's been requests, and these are paid for by taxpayer dollars. And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true? MR. McCLELLAN: First time I've ever heard of it. First time you've brought it to my attention, meaning the first time the press corps has brought it to my attention. In fact, I've watched other channels on here. Q There's one -- MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on, Jim, come on. I've watched other channels on here, so I don't know where you're hearing that. But it's the first time anyone in the press has raised that question with me. Q You've watched other channels other than Fox? MR. McCLELLAN: On here, yes, sure. Q I've never seen -- they're always turned to Fox, which a lot of people consider a Republican-leaning network.Q Scott, is it one -- on the airplane, is it one for all? I mean, if it's tuned for Fox here, is it Fox everywhere? MR. McCLELLAN: I think that certain areas may be interconnected, but I'll have to double-check which. Q Is yours off, wherever you are? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the conference room, or the senior staff office, the staff office, they're different TVs, and you can switch to different channels. I'm not sure if some of these in the back are connected to some of the others that are watching right here, right now. It doesn't look like it to me. I've never known anyone that's raised a complaint about a request from back here to watch a different channel. Q I'm officially raising it and officially complaining about it. MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I'm going to go see if we can change the channel for you. Have you called up? Q I was the Fox victim, and I was told -- the quote was, "No," when I asked for CNN. MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know who you talked to, so -- it didn't come to my attention. You don't know who you talked to either? Q Well, the magic people at the other end off the phone. MR. McCLELLAN: The magic people at the other end of the phone. Well, I'll see if this cabin is -- Q I was told, "We don't watch CNN here, you can only watch Fox."MR. McCLELLAN: As I said, it's hard to respond to something when I don't know who it is you talked to. Q I used the phone back here. MR. McCLELLAN: I find this all quite amusing, to tell you the truth. I mean, there are a lot of people on this plane that do watch that channel. Q I've never been told, no. They're such nice guys up there. MR. McCLELLAN: First time you brought it to my attention. I'll go see what we can do on it

 

[marko83]

Hey...if there was a network that kissed my ass 24 hours a day..I would be watching too.

 

[dhett21]

Oh no!! We're almost certain to lose November's election now - the White House has found itself entangled in "FOXgate"!!Funny stuff, Phil.

 

[wny]

My favorite part: "the magic people at the other end of the phone."

 

[Podcaster Pat]

Hi everyone:Only one *slight* problem Phil. I believe the new White House Press Secretary is TONY SNOW (Yes THE Tony Snow from, where else, FOX News).Other than that...GREAT joke! LOVED IT. Cheers everyone

 

[dampier]

I don't believe Snow had begun his duties at the time of the incident.

 

[KML0224]

Well! Even more reason to never watch FOX "News" Channel.

 

[arnoldevns]

I feel sorry for anyone having to deal with the whiny bunch of lazy reporters that make up the White House Press Corps. If this exchange was real, it's no wonder McClellan is leaving. Good luck to Tony Snow.

 

[Markxxx]

Well as much as I hate FOX it wouldn't be the first company to require only certain stations are turned on.I worked for lots of companies where they had a TV in the lunchroom and it was only turned to a certain channel periodWhen I worked for a hotel and they had shuttle drivers to the airport, they had a rule you could only have the radio on an "all news station" or "a sports game" (like basball) NO TAK RADIO AT ALL or for music it had to be a classical or "jazz" station.And that was it.So it's not unique

 

[dampier]

If this exchange was real, it's no wonder McClellan is leaving. Good luck to Tony Snow.

This was a real transcript of actual events. It was not a joke.

 

[dhett]

If this exchange was real, it's no wonder McClellan is leaving. Good luck to Tony Snow.

This was a real transcript of actual events. It was not a joke.

Apparently, it was real, including the "magic people" comment. The account was by Ken Herman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Q in Phil's transcript was Jim VandeHei of the Washington Post, up until the "I was the Fox victim" statement. Agence France Presse photographer Tim Sloan was the "victim" who spoke to the "magic people at the other end of the phone" in the press cabin. The station was changed to CNN.Scott McClellan stated that he found the whole thing "quite amusing". I find it quite pathetic. What a bunch of petty whiners! But, when you're so desperate to see a party and a president discredited, you'll grasp at any straw.

 

[dampier]

Scott McClellan stated that he found the whole thing "quite amusing". I find it quite pathetic. What a bunch of petty whiners! But, when you're so desperate to see a party and a president discredited, you'll grasp at any straw.

I think the issue here was that requests to change the channel to something else were turned down flat. I don't think that the channel being defaulted to the friendly Fox News was the issue as much as being told it cannot be changed to something else.