WHPC to Fox: Your Seat's in the Front Row

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The presidential press conference game of Musical Chairs set in motion by 89-year-old Helen Thomas' resignation and vacating of her front-row, center seat [see "TUOL" post 6/17/10] has ended with the White House Correspondents Association ("WHCA") Board's unanimous selection of Fox News to occupy a hallowed position in the front row.

The WHCA cited Fox's commitment to the White House press tv pool and its length of service as the basis for rewarding the news organization with the prime real estate, but "TUOL" suspects  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs wanted Fox News to sit in the first row to discourage its correspondents from  making faces or throwing spitballs at Obama Administration officials.

Fox News may have made it to the front row, but Thomas' center seat will go to The Associated Press, which traditionally poses the initial question at presidential press conferences. Good luck to AP trying to remove the "old person" smell from Thomas' long-time perch.

So that you can tell the players without a scorecard:  Bloomberg News gets to stay in the second row, NPR moves from the third row into Fox News' old second row slot, and The Financial Times gets its very own chair.  On the downside, financially-fading U.S. News & World Report lost its seat and The Washington Times got kicked from the third row to the fourth row.

Unless and until President Obama holds another press conference, the Fourth Estate's White House branch will just stand around and report on Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson, like the rest of their news media colleagues.