Politics

So, we wonder if the White House still thinks Fox News is "not a news network." Tonight, Fox News was the only news channel [other than C-SPAN] to provide live coverage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi making her way to the house chamber, then speaking to members ahead of tonight's vote on health care reform. CNN stayed with a taped replay of The Situation Room. MSNBC was airing a crime documentary, but mentioned that Pelosi was speaking during a scheduled live cut-in. FNC and MSNBC have teased they'll have coverage of the vote when it happens. CNN returns to live coverage at 7pmET.

With several surprises and late returns, yesterday's races delivered more drama than one would generally expect from an off-year election. Still, after the build up on the three cable news nets, some were disappointed with the extent of the coverage, especially if you were on the west coast.

During the 10pmET hour, WaPo's Howard Kurtz tweeted something that others had been wondering about MSNBC's broadcast, "The usual Countdown rerun, on Election Night?"

Rather than running a full, live "Countdown," Lawrence O'Donnell broke in with a 20-minute update on the latest election results. Afterward, MSNBC finished the replay of Keith Olbermann's 8pmET broadcast.

With the exception of one segment, all of Rachel Maddow's subsequent 11pmET program was live, as was 12amET's "Hardball."

An MSNBC spokesperson tells TVNewser, "MSNBC was live with what needed to be live and provided coverage of all the results as they came in."

In September, Keith Olbermann commented on his recurring absences, due to his father's health.

As for the other networks, Fox News went to tape at MidnightET. CNN did so at 1amET, following a Midnight edition "Larry King Live."

CNN's John King returns to "The Situation Room" with his magical wall, the international symbol for obscure election data. Check out TVNewser's summary of the election night coverage plans here.

Tomorrow, polls will open following an off-year election season that's included closely followed races in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. Here is a rundown of special coverage on the cable networks:

	Wolf Blitzer will be in D.C. anchoring coverage of the returns for CNN's "Election Night in America." Campbell Brown, Anderson Cooper, and Larry King will have an election focus for their programs and there will be a special "Larry King Live" at 12amET. Gloria Borger, Candy Crowley, John King, and Jessica Yellin, along with other correspondents, will appear during primetime programming.
	FNC will have live reporting throughout the day from Major Garrett and Jim Angle in D.C., Carl Cameron in Virginia, Shannon Bream in New Jersey, and Eric Shawn and Molly Line in New York. Martha MacCallum will anchor exit poll results. Bret Baier will anchor live from New York at 6pmET. Shepard Smith will anchor the 7pmET hour when Virginia poll results are expected. Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity will host their regular programs with updates from Smith and Baier. Smith and Baier will also be on with Greta Van Susteren at 10pmET.
	Chuck Todd will anchor live from D.C. at 11am and 2pmET and Ed Schultz will be live from New York at 4pmET. Special live editions of "Countdown, "The Rachel Maddow Show," and "Hardball" will be presented at 10pm, 11pm, and 12amET.
	FBN's election night coverage starts at 8pmET and will be anchored by Neil Cavuto in New York. Guests include former NJ governors Christie Whitman and Jim Florio, Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), former VA governor George Allen, and PA governor Ed Rendell.
	At 7amET, PA Governor Ed Rendell will be a guest host on "Squawk Box." From 7-9pmET, Larry Kudlow will anchor "A Special Edition of The Kudlow Report: Your Money, Your Vote" live from D.C. with guests including: Dick Armey, Lanny Davis, Ed Gillespie and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. CNBC's John Harwood and Hampton Pearson will also report.

We will update with additional information as we receive it.

Breaking: FishbowlDC scoops that Fox News SVP Michael Clemente met with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs this morning and the two reached what some are calling a "truce" in the ongoing and very public war of words between the Obama administration and the news network.

Clemente, who oversees FNC's news coverage, then met with staffers at the Washington bureau and encouraged them to remain "fair and balanced," reports FBDC's Matt Dornic.

An Obama administration official confirms with TVNewser that Clemente and Gibbs met this morning at the White House.

More information is coming out now about Thursday's incident involving the White House, Fox News, and the pool.

On Friday, WH spokesperson Josh Earnest told Politico, "This White House has demonstrated our willingness to do a round of interviews with a range of networks but not Fox," and, "Clearly, that didn't happen [Thursday]."

TPMDC reports that the Treasury department made "pay czar" Ken Feinberg available for TV interviews to the networks that requested them, which did not include Fox initially:

But logistically, all of the cameras could not get set up in time or with ease for the Feinberg interview, so they opted for a round robin where the networks use one pool camera. Treasury called the White House pool crew and gave them the list of the networks who'd asked for the interview.

The network pool crew noticed Fox wasn't on the list, was told that they hadn't asked and the crew said they needed to be included. Treasury called the White House and asked top Obama adviser Anita Dunn. Dunn said yes and Fox's Major Garrett was among the correspondents to interview Feinberg last night.

Simple as that, we're told, and the networks don't want to be seen as heroes for Fox.

A Treasury spokesperson told Mediaite, "There was no plot to exclude Fox News, and they had the same interview that their competitors did. Much ado about absolutely nothing."

This would refute claims yesterday that Fox was initially barred from interviewing Feinberg and that the White House only relented after pressure from the other networks. Though, CBS's Chip Reid said in a report last night, "All the networks said, that's it you crossed the line." Clip after the jump.

Fox New's Garrett reported on FNC yesterday that "The White House says it was more a misunderstanding" and that "In this current context, it looked like, for a time, and the pool considered it to be a premeditated attempt to exclude Fox. It was rapidly resolved. Fox did get an interview, that's the part the White House would like to focus on."

As for the involvement of the other networks, Garrett said, "The networks have a responsibilty, a contract, an understanding with the five, that if you're going to use one camera or a set of cameras from one network to do the work of the other four...then all five must be included." That clip is also after the jump.

continued...

In an interview with NBC White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie, President Obama discussed the administration's recent position on Fox News for the first time publicly:

Here's another roundup of reactions and updates a week after White House communications director Anita Dunn first revealed the anti-Fox press strategy.

David Bauder of the AP reports:

Fox said network executives have been told that no one from the administration would appear on a Fox show as a guest through the end of the year. Dunn denied there was a White House ban on Fox appearances. "We haven't said that to them," she said.

NYTimes' David Carr has his breakdown of the feud:

Ah, but pretending has traditionally been a valuable part of the presidential playbook. Smiling and wearing beige even under the most withering news media assault is not only good manners, but also has generally been good politics. While there is undoubtedly a visceral thrill in finally setting out after your antagonists, the history of administrations that have successfully taken on the media and won is shorter than this sentence.

John D. McKinnon at the WSJ has the latest Fox statement:

Michael Clemente, Fox News's senior vice president of news, said in a statement that "Surprisingly, the White House continues to declare war on a news organization instead of focusing on the critical issues that Americans are concerned about like jobs, health care and two wars. The door remains open and we welcome a discussion about the facts behind the issues."

Atlantic Wire's Benjamin Carlson has summaries of other reactions from the weekend.

Today on the Sunday shows, Senior Adviser David Axelrod and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel discussed the remarks made by communications director Anita Dunn last week regarding White House positions on Fox News.

On "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Axelrod said of Fox News, "It's not really news. It's pushing a point of view. The bigger thing is that, other news organizations, like yours, ought not treat them that way...We're going to appear on their shows, we're going to participate. But understanding that they represent a point of view."

Emanuel appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and said, "While it's clear what the white house and what Anita said, the concentration of the white house isn't about what FOX is doing."

Clips:

> More: On FOX News Sunday former adviser to Pres. Bush Karl Rove added, "This is a White House engaging in its own version of the media enemies list. And it's unhelpful for the country and undignified for the president of the United States to so do."

The National Election Pool, which is made up of ABC News, the Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News, will file a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court requesting that a federal judge stop the enforcement of last month's ruling that exit polling cannot be done within 100 feet of voting sites in New Jersey. Insiders tell TVNewser the suit will be filed Monday today.

On September 30th, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that exit polls and "expressive activity" be barred from within 100 feet of a polling place.

Prior to that, exit polling had not been considered one of the activities subject to the 100 foot ban in NJ.

Since the ruling, NJ is the only state that prohibits exit polling within 100 feet. Opponents argue that exit polls are constitutionally protected and feel that enforcement of the ban would make gathering reliable exit polling with low error rates more difficult.