The White House battle with Fox News, which Fox's direct competitors have
already been forced to cover, has now become a press pool question, via another competitor-ABC.
Helen Thomas, the New York Times and The Nation have all declared the fight a dumb one. But the administration tried to infuse it
with strategic importance this morning:

...Most of all, get other journalists to think twice before following the network's stories in their own coverage. "We're doing what we think is important to make sure news is covered as fairly as possible," a White House official told POLITICO, noting how the recent ACORN scandal story started because Fox covered it "breathlessly for weeks on end." "And then you had a couple days of breast-beating from The Washington Post and The New York Times about whether or not they were fast enough on the ACORN story," the official said. "And it's like: Wait a second, guys. Let's make sure that we keep perspective on what are the most important stories, and what's being driven by a network that has a perspective. Being able to make that point has been important."

But some, including Jake Tapper of ABC apparently, have a different take on this strategy:

To some media observers, it's almost the definition of a "chilling effect" - a governmental attempt to steer reporters away from negative coverage - but the White House press corps has barely uttered a word of complaint.

Here's where Tapper comes in with what might be deemed an uttered word of complaint:- just about nothing (click through for the whole exchange):

Tapper: It's escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations "not a news organization" and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it's appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one - (Crosstalk) Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage. Tapper: But that's a pretty sweeping declaration that they are "not a news organization." How are they any different from, say - Gibbs: ABC - Tapper: ABC. MSNBC. Univision. I mean how are they any different? Gibbs: You and I should watch sometime around 9 o'clock tonight. Or 5 o'clock this afternoon.