Fox's Obama Snub

People who rely on over-the-air television signal for both news and entertainment will be afforded at least some variety during President Obama’s third prime-time news conference on Wednesday. Rather than transmit the exact same images as ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, Fox will diss the president and air an episode of the new psychological drama Lie to Me. There are no requirements for television networks to show presidential news conferences, but networks usually accede to White House requests for time. The president’s first two evening question-and-answer sessions, February 9 and March 24, were shown by all the broadcast networks. However, network executives complained about advertising losses that were resulting from the government’s repeated requests for broadcast time. According to Fox, an on-screen graphic will alert viewers to coverage of the conference on the Fox News Channel. Viewers will also have the option of watching the president talk on various other cable channels, including Fox Business Channel and C-SPAN.