The New York Times‘ Jeremy Peters noticed that President Obama has taken a number of swipes at Fox News Channel in stump speeches over the last couple of months, and talks to network executives about their thoughts on the matter.

None of this has gone unnoticed inside the studios and executive suites of Fox News, which is rebuffing these White House put-downs as a denigration of the presidency.

“I think it lowers the office,” Michael Clemente, Fox’s executive vice president of news, said in an interview on Wednesday. “For it to come up as regularly as it does — and it’s not every day but every other week, I’d say — it’s just unusual. Especially given the issues out there, like the lack of new jobs and Syria.”

Peters also notes that the outcome of the election itself may have something of an impact on cable news ratings, as bizarre as it seems:
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Alex has written about how CNN got it wrong this morning in reporting the Supreme Court health care ruling. Now Fox News has issued a statement of its error, or more accurately, its inaccurate report.

As we reported in our first post on this mess, FNC’s Bill Hemmer reported at 10:07, “The individual mandate has been ruled unconstitutional.”

Shannon Bream then reported that news further from the steps of the Supreme Court.

At 10:09, Megyn Kelly jumped in: “Wait we are getting conflicting information, we are getting conflicting information. If you follow SCOTUSBlog.com which covers the high court they say that despite what Shannon just read that the individual mandate is surviving as a tax. This is not confirmed by us yet this is according to SCOTUSBlog which also has the opinion…”

Instead of admitting the network’s error, Michael Clemente, EVP of News for Fox News, took a shot at other networks:

“We gave our viewers the news as it happened. When Justice Roberts said, and we read, that the mandate was not valid under the Commerce clause, we reported it. Bill Hemmer even added, be patient as we work through this. Then when we heard and read, that the mandate could be upheld under the government’s power to tax, we reported that as well — all within two minutes.

By contrast, one other cable network was unable to get their Supreme Court reporter to the camera, and said as much. Another said it was a big setback for the President. Fox reported the facts, as they came in.”

Unlike CNN, which misreported the news on air, online and through social media for about six minutes before a clarification, FNC’s two minutes of inaccurate reporting was solely on TV. Here’s how it played out on air:

The New York Times‘ Jeremy Peters profiles “Fox & Friends,” the FNC morning show that found itself in hot water a few weeks ago after it ran a piece deeply critical of President Obama. Peters reveals that the White House actually called Fox News about the piece, something that rarely happens these days, despite the occasionally rough history between the two.

The two sides have managed a sort of détente lately. And after the White House raised objections to the Obama video, the network removed it from its Web site. (In an angry phone call, the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, told the network’s executive vice president for news, Michael Clemente, that even by “Fox & Friends” standards the video crossed the line, according to two Democrats who weren’t authorized to speak of the private conversation.) The news division at Fox has long tried to avoid having its reporters appear on the show whenever possible.

“Do we make mistakes? Absolutely,” said Bill Shine, executive vice president for programming at Fox News. “And when we make them we try to fix them, apologize for them, get out in front of them.”

Peters also speaks to someone who has remained out of the limelight for a while, but used to be a regular on the program: former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY).
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Fox News is making some changes on the executive level. Michael Clemente, the network’s senior vice president of news editorial, has been promoted to executive vice president, and John Moody will return as executive editor and EVP, the network announced today.

Moody was EVP of news editorial at FNC for 13 years before leaving the network in 2009 to oversee Newscore, News Corp.’s global wire service. Newscore will be absorbed by Fox News going forward, a move that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes said would “strengthen our overall newsgathering capabilities and enable us to operate at an even higher level.”

Clemente will continue to oversee Fox News editorial and run day-to-day operations for the news division, while Moody will oversee the network’s digital assets, including foxnews.com. Moody will also act as a senior advisor to Ailes.

“John’s extensive experience in news for the past several decades both in television and in print remain unmatched in the industry,” Ailes said in a statement. “John helped us become the number one news network and I look forward to working closely with him again.”

The full release is after the jump.

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First Lady Michelle Obama will be a guest on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” next Tuesday, May 29. It will be her second appearance on the show, her first as First Lady. She will be there to shill her new book AMERICAN GROWN: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, but viewers should expect politics to come up. Update: She will be on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “The View” that day too.

ABC News is working with startup Qwiki to use its new news format. What the heck is Qwiki? Qwiki allows publishers to combine, text, photos, videos, tweets and other items to create a cohesive story, or provide information about a specific topic. Here’s an example of what it looks like.

Fox News correspondent Casey Stegall is moving from the channel’s Los Angeles bureau to its Dallas bureau. He will make the move in a few weeks. “We’ve been impressed with Casey’s hard news instincts and proven experience in Los Angeles, which should serve him well, reporting from our Dallas bureau,” said Michael Clemente, senior VP of News Editorial in a statement.

‘Tis commencement season, and so without further ado, we present TVNewser’s fifth annual list of who’s-speaking-where-and-when at America’s colleges and universities (in alphabetical order):

ABC/CNN’s Christiane Amanpour: University of Southern California - Annenberg School of Journalism,  May 11

NBC’s Tom Brokaw: Arizona State University , May 3…Vanderbilt University (TN) – Senior Class Day, May 10

FNC’s SVP of News Editorial Michael Clemente: Warren County Community College (NJ), May 19

ABC’s Katie Couric:  University of Virginia, May 20

NBC’s Tom Costello: University of Colorado, Journalism & Mass Communication, May 10.

NBC’s David Gregory: Emerson College (MA), May 14

CNN/CBS’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta: University of Michigan, previously on April 28

NBC’s Savannah Guthrie: Hobart and William Smith Colleges (NY), May 13

MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry: Wellesley College (MA), May 25

PBS’s Maria Hinojosa: Simmons College (MA) – Morning Commencement, May 18

NBC’s Lester Holt: Pepperdine University (CA), previously on April 28

PBS’s Gwen Ifill: Holy Names University (CA), May 12… Bates College (ME), May 26

More after the jump, including Koppel, Lehrer, Sawyer, Schieffer, and three Williamses (Brian, Juan, and Pete)

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Heather Childers is the latest cable newser to find herself at the center of a social media firestorm.

The Fox News anchor tweeted links to several articles from Godfather Politics earlier this week that caused a stir, including one which questioned whether the Obama campaign had threatened Chelsea Clinton‘s life and one that said Obama “Channels Joseph Stalin, Attacks Supreme Court Justices.”

“The tweets have been addressed with Heather and she understands this was a mistake,” Fox News SVP Michael Clemente told Mediaite Tuesday.

After a flood of responses, Childers was quick to offer an apology. “Here’s the thing folks … that ONE topic sure got a lot of you tweeting,” she wrote. “Why? I apologize if the article offended anyone. Very interesting.” She has since protected her tweets.

The New York Times Caucus blog reports Mitt Romney met with Fox News executives for an off the record meeting in early November. A couple weeks after that meeting, Romney went on “Special Report with Bret Baier” for what ended up being a contentious face-to-face. “I think Gov. Romney didn’t like the way the interview went,” Baier told Politico.

Mr. Romney and some of his staff members stopped by Fox News headquarters in New York for an editorial meeting with Michael Clemente, the executive vice president of news, as well as some anchors, reporters, producers and other management team members.

“This is an informal, off-the-record chance for people to meet one another and talk about any of the current issues,” Mr. Clemente said. “I can say that it went very well from both sides. When people get to meet in person and talk in person, and see the person up close…”

Fox News has announced it will host two more Republican presidential debates. One in Iowa the other in South Carolina in the coming months.

“We are pleased to host these additional Republican presidential debates and provide viewers an opportunity to gain more insight into the nominees at such critical junctures in the 2012 election season,” said Michael Clemente, SVP of News. The Iowa debate will be held on Thursday Dec. 15 at 9pmET in Sioux City while Myrtle Beach will play host to a GOP debate on Monday, Jan. 16 also at 9pmET.

Both debates will be moderated by “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier. With 6.1 million viewers, FNC’s Sept. 22 GOP debate was the most-watched this primary cycle.

Fox News and Google are in the middle of their final preparations for tonight’s GOP Presidential debate. In advance of the debate, moderator Bret Baier shot a video giving a tour and preview of the event, featuring special guest and Fox News executive Michael Clemente: