“This is tremendous fodder for us”

In Today’s Los Angeles Times reporter Matea Gold reports that the White House attacks on Fox has been a great boon for the network.

Glenn Beck, the network’s newest star, gleefully unveiled a red telephone on his set, saying it was a special line for the White House to use to correct any mistakes he makes.

“We may be No. 1, but there is sort of an insurgent quality to Fox News,” said senior political analyst Brit Hume. “And that’s kind of our attitude: ‘Hoist a Jolly Roger, pull out our daggers and look for more throats to slit.’ This is tremendous fodder for us. My lord, we’ve been living on it.”

….after White House aides recently labeled the top-rated cable news channel “a wing of the Republican Party” and argued that it is not a news network, Fox News found itself back in a spot it relishes: firing back at a more powerful adversary.

…..the White House’s stance also gave extra lift to the network at a time when it is on track to record its best ratings year ever. This year, Fox News has averaged nearly 1.2 million viewers across all its programming, a 16% increase over the same period last year, according to Nielsen. In the two weeks since aides to President Obama took after the coverage, the audience has been 8% larger than the previous two weeks.

On Thursday, the Washington bureau chiefs of the networks balked when the Treasury Department sought to exclude Fox from a series of interviews with executive pay czar Kenneth Feinberg that was being filmed with a pool camera. The bureau chiefs insisted that Fox be included because it was part of the five-network pool, said CBS bureau chief Christopher Isham. “There was no debate,” he said.

If anything, the Obama administration has succeeded in reinforcing Fox News’ identity as a thorn in the side of the establishment — a role the network loves to play.

The link for the entire story is here.