Anti-Fox Member Of Journolist Is On White House Correspondent Association Board
And why does that matter? Because, as Matt Lewis points out, the WHCA board decides who gets access to the White House press room and who sits where. Fox is up to get the seat vacated by Helen Thomas, and the board will decide whether or not the news organization gets it.
It turns out that one of the journalists who was critical of Fox, of Time magazine, may actually be in a position to hurt Fox News when it comes time to determine which outlet will inherit Helen Thomas’ prized front-row seat for White House briefings.
According to The Daily Caller, writing on the ‘Journolist’, Scherer agreed with Guardian columnist Daniel Davies who said “peer pressure” and “self-regulation” weren’t enough to control Fox News, so what was needed was a “tough legal framework.”
Scherer then went on to add that,
Roger “Ailes understands that his job is to build a tribal identity, not a news organization. You can’t hurt Fox by saying it gets it wrong, if Ailes just uses the criticism to deepen the tribal identity.”
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As you may recall, there is a battle taking place to determine which media outlet will get the Thomas seat for White House briefings. Many believe that Fox News should get the seat.
As FishbowlDC recently reported, the White House Correspondents’ Association’s “board plans to make final decisions by August 2nd.”
One wonders if Scherer, who holds the “magazine” seat on the board, will recuse himself from the vote, based on the notion that his past comments imply he cannot fairly help decide this matter.
My guess is that he won’t recuse himself. After all, someone has to rein in Fox News, right?
Tags: fox news, journolist, media bias, michael scherer, time magazine

