Although the verbal shooting war between White House and Fox News Channel seems to have gone into lull mode, an anonymous political consultant says he was warned off FNC, a claim the WH denies.
The consultant told the Los Angeles Times that the implication was that appearances on Fox could result in loss of business, and declined to go on the record to avoid that very prospect.
White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who has been directly involved in the back-and-forth between WH and FNC at times, said that there is no such policy or directive in effect, and was unable to identify who if anybody had made the claim to the consultant.
Former Democratic Pollster and current frequent FNC guest Patrick Caddell, who severed his ties with the Democratic Party back in the late 80s, said he too had heard of similar WH threats, but he would not name names either. He said it had never happened to himself.
Two White House officials, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and key adviser David Axelrod, made appearances on the network last week.
RBR-TVBR observation: What’s the fun of shady anonymous charges when just a few short weeks ago key will-known characters were going back and forth right out in the open. This almost sounds like a case of if there’s no news, let’s make some.
Next time, we want nothing less than a face-to-face shouting match between Barack Obama and Rupert Murdoch before the rest of the press shows any interest.
