White House Snub Leads to Controversy, Gibbs Apology

By Andrew Gauthier 

Huffington Post

A Fox News executive told the Huffington Post Saturday that the network “absolutely” did request an interview with Obama administration “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg and that the White House acknowledged a mistake on the part of a Treasury department staffer in failing to initially include Fox News in the round of interviews Feinberg conducted Thursday.

“Of course we requested an interview,” Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente told the Huffington Post.

Advertisement

This directly contradicts reports by the Associated Press and Talking Points Memo, both of which reported that the White House had excluded Fox News because it did not request an interview.

Whether Fox News requested an interview was irrelevant in this case, however, as the interview was conducted a pool including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox News.

Clemente said that CBS News Washington Bureau Chief and current pool chairman Chris Isham –who did not respond to phone or e-mail requests for comment Saturday–received a call from the Treasury Department Thursday saying that Feinberg would be available to speak to all of the networks in the pool except for Fox News More…

Advertisement