by EDWARD SZTUKOWSKI
News Editor

The White House attempted to bar Fox News from interviewing Treasury Department “pay czar” Kenneth Fienberg Thursday, after a week of back-and-forth arguing where administration officials criticized the news organization as a mouthpiece of the Republican Party.

“It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective,” White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “More importantly, is to not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization.”

Fox News is built upon news coverage supplemented with mainly conservative commenters later in the day.

In my opinion, CNN and MSNBC are really no better; they just offer a different perspective from Fox News.

I personally think Fox News has a conservative opinion, but I realize it is part of their opinion segments. At The Appalachian, we have an opinion section that is considered separate from news coverage. It was not Sean Hannity trying to interview Frienberg, but a news reporter.

By refusing a press organization the opportunity to report news, the Obama Administration has taken a dangerous stance, one that is not being well received by other organizations.

Instead of being complacent, as the Obama Administration had hoped, other media outlets backed out of the Fienberg interview until Fox News was allowed access.

Now that media organizations have made clear their opinions, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said the whole ordeal was a mistake, and Fox News had never requested an interview with Fienberg in the first place.

“The White House has demonstrated our willingness to exclude Fox from ... television interviews,” administration spokesman Joshua Earnest said. “But yesterday we didn’t.”

Fox News fired back with a statement that they did request an interview and were denied.

Whatever your view of Fox News, it is never good if a news organization is censored. Some who hate Fox News said they are finally getting what they deserve, but that is a shortsighted thought.

So what if the Obama Administration was to ban Fox News? What news organization is next? Should the media be afraid to voice their opinions because the United States government does not agree with it?

The press is first and foremost a government watchdog, existing to serve the public and inform the average citizen as to what is happening in the world. By limiting that, the government is essentially limiting information available to its people.

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