[Howard Kurtz, Cnn Anchor:] It is a high honor, an exalted award to be named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. So why did the White House immediately have to play defense when the media pounced on Friday's stunning announcement that President Obama had won the prize? Yes, it's almost absurdly early in his term, but for administration officials the reaction seemed to symbolize a skeptical, sometimes hostile, media climate. Obama offered a low-key reaction to the news and then the pundits had their say.
[Obama:] To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize.
[Unidentified Male:] I think there's an element of ridiculousness to the award. Our president is a worldwide joke. Conservatives hate America. They should love it or leave it, obviously. I loved Obama's faux humility in his little statement today, but I think he should said no.
[Kurtz:] So what is the president's team doing to push back against the press, especially the folks at FOX News? I spoke earlier with Anita Dunn, the White House communications director, from the north lawn. Anita Dunn, welcome.
[Dunn:] Howie, thanks for having me.
[Kurtz:] As we heard, President Obama on Friday said he did not deserve the Nobel Peace prize. It wasn't something he sought. You have the conservative commentators saying it's a joke. It's an outrage and somehow a bad thing. What's your reaction to that?
[Dunn:] A week ago on the previous Friday, many conservative commentators have been rejoicing in the fact, celebrating in the fact that the United States didn't get the Olympics. One week later they seem to be somewhat bitter at the fact at that an American president was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. So I think people will draw their own conclusions on the reflexive negativity on the part of some commentators regardless of what happens. I think the bigger point, though...
[Kurtz:] Go ahead.
[Dunn:] I think the bigger point is that and the president himself said this, that he was surprised, as I think most of the press corps was. He feels that he, you know, didn't really deserve it, as I think there are many people who feel this is still particularly in terms of this presidency, it's the first year. So I think that those people who are saying this is really quite unusual. This really does seem to be, you know, a big surprise to everyone...
[Kurtz:] Yes, it is.
[Dunn:] ... that's not out of bounds. It's absolutely not out of bounds. And I think what the president also said today...
[Kurtz:] Let me interrupt you because we're short on time. We talked about conservative commentators. Let's talk about FOX News. You were quoted in "Time" magazine as saying of FOX News, that it's "opinion journalism masquerading as news." What do you mean "masquerading?"
[Dunn:] Howie, I think if we went back a year go to the fall of 2008, to the campaign, that it was a time when this country was in two wars, that we had a financial collapse probably more significant than any financial collapse since the Great Depression. If you were a FOX News viewer in the fall election, what you would have seen would have been that the biggest stories and biggest threats facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and something called ACORN. The reality of it is that FOX News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. And it's not ideological. Obviously, there are many commentators who have conservative, liberal, centrist, and everybody understands that. But I think what is fair to say about FOX and certainly the way we view it is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party.
[Kurtz:] Is that the reason the president did not go on FOX News Sunday when he did all the other Sunday shows, and will President Obama appear again on FOX this year?
[Dunn:] Well, you know, Howie, President Obama, he did "The Factor." He did "O'Reilly."
[Kurtz:] Yes. That was during the campaign.
[Dunn:] That was last year. As president earlier this year when he met with news anchors, met with Chris Wallace...
[Kurtz:] My question is will he appear on FOX in the next couple of months?
[Dunn:] You had a two-part question. The first was, is this why he did not appear? And the answer is yes, obviously he'll go on Fox because he engages with ideological opponents. And he has done that before. He will do it again. I can't give you a date because, frankly, I can't give you dates for anybody else right now. But what I will say is that when he goes on FOX, he understands that he is not going on it really is not a news network at this point. He's going to debate the opposition. And that's fine. He never minds doing that. But...
[Kurtz:] On that point, [inaudible], I want to read a statement from FOX senior V.P. Michael Clemente, who said the following, we'll put it up on the screen. "An increasing number of viewers are relying on FOX News for both news and opinion, and the average news consumer can certainly distinguish between the A-section of the newspaper and the editorial page, which is what our programming represents. So with all due respect to anyone who might still be confused between news reporting and vibrant opinion, my suggestion would be to talk about the stories and the facts rather than attack the messenger, which over time has never worked." Your response?
[Dunn:] Yes. I think there have been numerous independent analyses that have looked at the difference between CNN, ABC, NBC ABC and FOX, and have seen there is a very different story selection. There's a very even down to the chyron they run below stories that, you know, this isn't us making it up, Howie. You study the media. You know that it's not just their opinion shows.
[Kurtz:] Take Major Garrett, he's the White House correspondent for FOX News. Do you think he's fair? Do you think he's masquerading as a newsman?
[Dunn:] I will say and I've done this in my interviews. I've differentiated. No, I've not said I've differentiated between Major Garrett, who we view as a very good correspondent, and his network, and Major knows this. Major came to me when we didn't include Chris.
[Kurtz:] Chris Wallace.
[Dunn:] In the round of Sunday shows, Chris Wallace from the Sunday shows. And I told Major quite honestly that we had told Chris Wallace that having fact-checked an administration guest on his show, something I've never seen a Sunday show do, and Howie, you can show me examples of where Sunday shows have fact-checked previous weeks' guests. We asked Chris for example where he had done that to anybody besides somebody from the administration in the year 2009, and we're still waiting to hear from him. When they want to treat us like they treat everyone else but let's be realistic here, Howie. They are they're widely viewed as, you know, part of the Republican Party. Take their talking points and put them on the air. Take their opposition research and put them on the air, and that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is.
[Kurtz:] You are making a distinction, just before I move on, between the opinion guys, O'Reilly, Hannity, Glenn Beck, and people like Major Garrett.
[Dunn:] I'm not talking about people like Major Garrett. I'm talking about the overall programming.
[Kurtz:] OK.
[Dunn:] For instance, Howie, "The New York Times" had a front page story about Nevada Senator John Ensign and the fact that he had gotten his former chief of staff a job as a lobbyist and his former chief of staff's wife was someone Ensign had had an affair with.
[Kurtz:] We reported the story.
[Dunn:] Did you see coverage of that on FOX News? I'm not talking Glenn Beck, and I'm not talking Sean or "The Factor." I'm talking about FOX News.
[Kurtz:] I will have to check on that. I assume you know the answer. Let me ask you about the main stream media in general are you and your colleagues at the White House seem to believe that journalists have fallen down on the job when it comes to allowing or spreading or repeating misinformation? Is that the problem or is the problem that sometimes they're reporting information that's not to the administration's liking?
[Dunn:] Oh, listen, there's never been an administration starting with George Washington who thought they were covered the way they should be. We make mistakes. We have problems, and we expect those to get covered. We expect to take our hits and we do.
[Kurtz:] Are you leading kind of an effort, almost like a war room effort, to combat statements that are made as part of this 24-hour news cycle that the president often deplores?
[Dunn:] When the statements are untrue and when they mischaracterize, when they are using opposition research that's inaccurate, when people are just not being honest, absolutely. We're going to go out there and we're going to correct those facts. We learned over the summer that the mainstream media often will start covering these total inaccuracies as a controversy and that's the way it gets into the press room. That's the way it gets on the front page of "The New York Times." We're not going to let that happen and stand by and let people characterize the president's policies in ways that are simply not true.
[Kurtz:] The media did blow the whistle on the so-called death panels and said they were completely bogus. Go ahead and make your point.
[Dunn:] My point is very simple, which is that the Republican member of Congress who delivered the response to the president's address to the joint session of Congress on health care in September was one of the early sponsors of the so-called death panel legislation, which I don't believe you know, do you?
[Kurtz:] I'm happy to be educated. Let me ask you one last question before we go. To some extent, poll numbers being down, problems piling up, things are probably not going well as you would like for the administration, I'm wondering whether people at the White House are a little shell-shocked because Barack Obama got such good coverage during the campaign and now he's getting pretty typical presidential coverage, which is to say, pretty rough coverage.
[Dunn:] Oh, you know, the reality is one of the great strengths of President Obama as a candidate and as president is his ability to take the long view, understand there will be good times and bad times. Certainly over the course of a two-year campaign, Howie and I don't think you'd disagree there were times that were quite rough for us, in particular around the Pennsylvania primary and certainly in the general election as well, absolutely. We understand that, and he understands better than anyone that you're going to be up and you're going to be down. What is true, though, is that you do not have to be a passive bystander when your opponents are seeking to not have a debate on the issues but simply to tear down the president and his presidency, and that's what we're not going to do. We will push back.
[Kurtz:] The White House is not going to be passive. Anita Dunn, thank you very much for joining us from the lawn.
[Dunn:] Thank you, Howie.
[Kurtz:] And we offered FOX News a chance to have someone appear on the program and the network chose to give me a statement that I read moments ago. When we come back, reaction to the interview you just saw. Plus, scorched by "SNL," The discussion about the president's paucity of accomplishments lead real journalists to dump on Obama. And later, David Letterman is shocked, shocked that reporters are digging into his sexual misbehavior.