Obama’s House Gives Censorship A Twirl

The White House got a kick in the pants this week from Constitution-wielding media networks.  Fitting that at Halloween time our Executive branch would attempt one of the scariest violations of democratic rights I’ve seen in my lifetime.  Obama’s had a problem with Fox News for some time now for what he feels is unfair treatment.  By unfair, he means they report the news even if it’s critical of him.  Love ’em or hate ’em, if Fox News were making stuff up all the time, they wouldn’t be a part of the White House pool. 

The White House pool is a five network rotation of media outlets that share costs and responsibilities of covering White House happenings.  Fox News has been a part of the pool since 1997.  On Thursday, the White House tried to exclude Fox News from interviewing Obama’s pay czar Ken Feinberg.  The decision to ban a major news network from the president’s administration is stunning, and I don’t mean stunning as in “look at Kate Beckinsale!”  I’m talking stunning as in here’s a taser right to the gut of First Amendment rights. 

Remember Thomas Jefferson’s take on the importance of the press?  If you’ve never read this before, here you go.

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.” — Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787.

Well, here comes the good part of this story.  The other members of the D.C. press put aside partisan obsession and decided that Jefferson was right and Obama’s White House is wrong.  ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN refused to interview Feinberg if Fox was to be ostracized.  The White House caved.  How cool is that?