MSNBC’s Maddow and Olbermann Invited to Obama Chat, Not Fox News

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:07 pm

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On Monday the White House hosted an off the record chat with President Obama which MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, along with Eugene Robinson, PBS’ Gwen Ifill, and Gloria Borger of CNN were all present, but Fox News was not invited. This led FNC to compare Obama to Nixon and cry about being shut out.

Here is the video of the Fox and Friends crew complaining:

Gretchen Carlson said, “Interestingly enough, apparently in this reporter gaggle was Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann who are opinion people over at MSNBC. I find that highly entertaining that they apparently, were amongst these reporters, and they’re officially fair and balanced, apparently according to the White House.”

According to TV Newser, Carlson got it wrong. Maddow and Olbermann weren’t at the reporter gaggle on Tuesday. They were at an off the record chat on Monday. The most hysterical thing about this is that Fox News is complaining about being frozen out by the Obama administration, when the Bush administration did the exact same thing to MSNBC.

Here is the video of Dana Perino admitting that the Bush administration froze out MSNBC:

What the Obama administration is doing with Fox News is nothing unusual. Every administration courts the media, and plays to the outlets where they hope that they can get the best coverage. This is the way the game is played between the media and the White House. I didn’t hear Fox News rushing to defend the New York Times and MSNBC when the Bush administration was attacking them.

By the way, the Obama administration is not freezing out Fox News forever. The White House notified the network that they would not be giving any more interviews to FNC for the rest of the year, which is the real reason why the network is crying. Even opposition television networks need access to the White House. By cutting off their exclusives, the White House is playing a bit of hardball with them.

Fox News is jealous that Olbermann and Maddow have more access to the White House than they do now, but they seem to have forgotten how good they had it during the Bush years. The tilt media access is nothing more than a part of the political cycle. When a Republican is back in the White House, FNC will be the favored network and Maddow and Olbermann will be shut out again.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association