See that empty seat front and center? That was Helen Thomas' official seat in the White House press pool, the only such designation in the press room. It was given to her in honor of her 57 years of covering presidential press conferences.

In the wake of her resignation, three news services are vying to take Thomas' seat: Fox News Channel, Bloomberg and NPR.

But let's be honest: giving Fox News Channel--the same outlet that elevated Breitbart's ACORN and Sherrod scandals to national prominence, that continues to push the NBPP non-story, that employs that inciter of insanity, Glenn Beck--the seat is a slap in the face to any American who actually cares about news.

Credo Action is asking progressives to contact the White House Correspondents Association and ask them to not award Fox News Helen Thomas' seat. From an email sent to members:

We need help.

There's a new front where we can chip away at the perceived legitimacy of FOX as a news organization.

The White House Correspondents Association is scheduled to decide in a Monday meeting which news outlet will get the White House press briefing room front row seat vacated recently by Helen Thomas. (we're trying to confirm reports that this meeting has been moved up a day to Sunday. more on that when we get better info.)

Three organizations are vying for this seat: FOX, NPR and Bloomberg News. [..]

We need your help. CREDO launched a campaign yesterday morning to call attention to this and already 140,000 people have signed our petition. We are faxing and working on petition deliveries to the board members and executive director of the organization in advance of their meeting. The petition is here: http://www.credoaction.com/campaign/fox_or_npr/

"Joe the Voter" at OpEd News has a boilerplate letter that you may want to use to send in your name:

White House Correspondents' Association
600 New Hampshire Avenue, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20037
202-266-7453 (v)
202-266-7454 (f )
Julia Whiston, Executive Director.

Do not give Helen Thomas' seat to FOX !

They are NOT news...they are a politically motivated racist organization who lie, distort and deceive viewers to promote a specific political agenda. They have FCC complaints filed against them for using their "news" status contrary to federal rules against bias and distortion in the news. The recent scandals where Fox assisted in slander and personal attacks against blacks such as Shirley Sherrod, Van Jones and Acorn all indicate their inability to present news using accepted and honorable journalistic standards.

Putting FOX in that chair would be a black mark on your organization as it would amount to an acceptance of their extreme distortions as being the equal of your other distinguished members.

Respectfully,
[ Add your name and fax or email from their web site http://www.whca.net/contact.htm ]

President Obama killed and Jay Leno bombed at the WHPC. That's got to be embarrassing to all comedians, especially conservative comics.

Wanna know why?

The only person whose ratings fell more than mine did last year is here. Great to see you, Jay!” Obama dinged the off-and-on Tonight show host, who, when his turn came on the podium at the Washington Hilton, proceeded to confirm just why that might be true.

Obama—aided (as presidential political guru David Axelrod acknowledged to me when the show was over) by the razor-sharp jokesters from The Daily Show—came armed with fresh and funny material that prompted some of the biggest laughs I’ve witnessed the Leader of the Free World receiving in more than two decades of attending this strange Washington media-political celebration of self-congratulation—a tribal (and, to outside observers, potentially unappealing) rite of spring in which supposedly discerning and skeptical journalists laugh their posteriors off and lavishly kiss the one belonging to the Comedian-in-Chief.

Leno, while entirely competent, recycled and repurposed old material from his television show—and even made a mother-in-law joke. After one of his japes was greeted by eerie silence, it was hard not to feel a tinge of sympathy for him when he marveled desperately, “This is a tough room!”

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TIME"s Joe Klein went after Rush Limbaugh and didn't hold back any punches. The topic was Wanda Sykes and her routine at the WH Correspondents Dinner. She hit Rushbo. and conservatives are so upset.

KLEIN: This is just comedy. And we're talking about a guy in Rush Limbaugh who is inappropriate half the time I hear him on the radio.

CARPENTER: Yes, but he doesn't go to the White House Correspondents' Dinner to... (CROSSTALK)

KLEIN: But he describes himself as an entertainer. Wanda Sykes, entertainer. This is entertainment.

CARPENTER: But would you hold up Rush Limbaugh at these dinners to tell those jokes?

KLEIN: So could Rush. He could be in a lot better taste on a daily basis in which he is delivering misinformation, lies to a large audience in America. That is far more serious than telling a couple of jokes at a banquet.

KURTZ: Well, "lies" is a strong word, but we'll come back to that another time.

Klein was surprisingly candid in his assessment of Limbaugh and what he says on the air. Kurtz got stunned when Joe called Rush an outright liar. He also defends Sykes right to do what she will as a comedian.

(transcript below the fold via CNN)

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During MSNBC's 9AM/12PM news edition, David Shuster was talking to Andy Barr from the Politico about Sarah Palin's rapidly dropping Alaskan poll numbers. She was on the East Coast, touring with the Republican listening tour that's supposed to save the GOP.

Anyway, she was supposed to go to DC to be a guest at the White House Correspondents Dinner, but then cancelled.

Flooding in her home state has forced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to cancel an appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner

Palin told reporters Thursday that she would skip her planned East Coast trip so she could visit parts of Alaska that have been struggling with the most serious flooding in decades.

In addition to attending the dinner Saturday — a mix of Washington elite, White House press corps and Hollywood celebrities — the former Republican vice presidential candidate was scheduled to promote Alaska seafood at an appearance in New York.

What the AP failed to tell us was that Sarah Palin was invited to the dinner by FOX News. No seriously, FOX News invited her as a guest. They are trying to help her run for President in 2012.

Shuster: Why would she want to go to the White House's Correspondence Dinner to begin with, I think I know the answer, but I'll let you explain.

Barr: Well, she was an invited guest of FOX News. As you know the WH Correspondents Dinner is kind of THE event for all the A-Lister's in Washington and if she's going to be a national player , you know a lot of the other players are going to be there, so if there was nothing major going on home, this was something that definitely she could have come to and gotten a lot of attention for.

Shuster: You know Andy, you said something that caught me by surprise. I didn't realize, she was an invited guest of FOX News?

Barr: Yes, she was invited, that's correct. She was going to stay there. I believe Todd Palin is sitting in for her.

Shuster: Alright, I'm just going to keep my mouth shut on that one...

OK, it must have been Greta, right? And they still want to be called a news organization....

AttyTood:

Why in the name of God are four working journalists among those attending this state dinner -- not as reporters with a notebook or a camera but as guests munching on Dover sole and dancing into the night with America's own brand of dukes and earls?[..]

In the last few weeks, the sight of journalists yucking it up with celebrities and the people that they cover at annual events like the White House Correspondents' Association dinner (the one where President Bush famously joked about not being able to find weapons of mass destruction) has caused a growing uproar. Last week, the New York Times said its staffers will no longer attend such dinners...

I think there needs to be a debate about whether journalists should attend these fancy state dinners as well. The reason should be obvious. Reporters -- whether they work in Washington, D.C. or a small mountain town in Washington State -- ought to be the voice of the kind of people who don't get invited to white-tie affairs, the handymen and school teachers, not the politicians and billionaires.

via David Corn

No mention of the US troops being killed in Iraq but a horse jerk-off joke--that is one way to sum up the First Couple's appearance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday evening.

This black-tie shindig is an annual ritual. Over two thousand DC media people and government officials mingle with imported Hollywood celebrities--hey there goes Richard Gere!--and the president of the moment shows up and entertains the feeling-good-about-themselves attendees with humorous (often self-deprecating) remarks. Last year, Bush made a crack about my book, The Lies of George W. Bush. Read it all