Speaking privately at the White House on Monday with a group of columnists and commentators, including Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann of MSNBC and Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Bob Herbert of The New York Times, President Obama himself gave vent to sentiments about the network, according to people briefed on the conversation.
Then, in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, the president went public. “What our advisers have simply said is that we are going to take media as it comes,” he said. “And if media is operating, basically, as a talk radio format, then that’s one thing. And if it’s operating as a news outlet, then that’s another.”...
Mr. Clemente suggested that the fight with Fox was part of a larger White House strategy to marginalize critics. He cited a report in Politico about a strategy session in August at which officials discussed plans to move more aggressively against opponents.
White House officials acknowledged that Fox News did come up at that meeting, although not, they said, as a central topic. A number of issues had been added to the White House’s list of grievances by then, including the network’s heavy coverage of some of the more heavily anti-administration commentary at town-hall-style meetings on health care and Mr. Beck’s remark that Mr. Obama “has a deep-seated hatred for white people.”
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Aside from the fact that someone actually allowed the likes of Maddow, Olbermann and Dowd, etc. on White House grounds as news "professionals", it seems the president is not as appreciative of debating issues with people who don't agree with him as the White House lets on, especially with the likes of Fox's Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.
Luckily, as he told NBC this week, he's "not losing any sleep over it."
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