Despite the overwhelming evidence, the White House Correspondent’s Association still suffers under the delusion that Fox News has something to do with news. They just released their decision of who would get the seat in the White House Briefing Room that was previously occupied by Helen Thomas. The decision:

The board of the White House Correspondents Association has agreed, by consensus, to move the Associated Press to the front row, center seat in the James S. Brady Briefing Room.

The board further agreed to move Fox News to the front row seat previously occupied by AP, and relocate NPR into the second row seat previously held by Fox, next to Bloomberg News.

It was a very difficult decision. The board received requests from Bloomberg and NPR in addition to Fox for relocation to the front row and felt all three made compelling cases. But the board ultimately was persuaded by Fox’s length of service and commitment to the White House television pool.

The board could not plausibly have been persuaded by length of service because NPR has been on the White House beat for 40 years compared to 14 for Fox News. So the “commitment to the White House television pool” must have been the deciding factor. That sounds like a financial decision to me, and not one based on merit.

This is a disappointing, albeit minor, development. Just because the WHCA moves Fox up a row doesn’t mean that Robert Gibbs has to call on them. And that’s where the battle shifts to now. Gibbs must be reminded every day that Fox News is NOT news. They have no more right to be in the that room than Jeff Gannon did.